After the End
by Haegr
Summary: Commander Jane Shepard has done everything she could to defeat the Reapers. Yet the galaxy is a cruel place and she must once more assemble her team and do the impossible and prevent an even more devastating war. Story set after modded Mass Effect 3, thus with destroyed Reapers but with a still living EDI and Geth. I own nothing and all IP belongs to their respective owners.
1. Remembrance

**Commander Shepard's temporary residence, outside Vancouver**

For most of the citizens sheltered outside Vancouver today was a good night. The reconstruction efforts have gotten to the point that there was no loud machine noises to be hard after the evening. Slowly civilisation was rebuilding itself atfer the horrendous damage the Reapers' invasion did to Earth's infractructure.

Commander Shepard was no such citizen. The sounds of heavy machinery were the least of her worries when she layed down into her bed for the night. Sleep brought horrors far worse and even months after the final battle, she still found herself waking covered in sweat in the middle of the night.

She got out of bed and went to the bathroom to splash some water on her face. The holographic interface of her mirror confirmed that it was 3 am, and she cursed invardly. She hoped to make it to at least 5 am before waking. Jane sighed and stared forward at her own reflection. A beautiful woman in her early thirties looked back, weeks of medigel treatment having removed the facial scarring that the terrors of the war have gouged into her face to reveal the Cerberus implants that brought her back to life.

Glowing, red eyes stared back at her, a testament of past losses she wished to keep, despite the arguments Doctor Chakwas had about it with her. She sweeped a few locks of her bob cut crimson hair from her forehead and splashed water on her face to clean the sweat from her pale skin. She set about brushing her teeth, but despite all her efforts her mind wandered back to the war.

It has been a horrible affair from the start, and only through her sheer determination to do what was needed to do did the forces of the Citadel eventually defeat the Reapers, but at a cost so terrible that it haunted her every waking moment. Countless billions dead, civilisations cast down and friends lost.

A single tear rolled down her cheek as she thought about Kaidan, Thane, Legion and Anderson. London and Thessia was a smoking ruin that would take decades to restore and Palaven was only slightly better off. They have given their lives to save others, and the guilt of all survivors gnawed at her soul. Just like at Torfan, she lived and others died.  
At least the Alliance specialists have managed to alter the Crucible's energy capacitators enough to make sure EDI and the Geth did not perish in the final, fateful choice that sent the Reapers to their fiery graves. She was not sure she could have lived with that genocide weighting on her shoulders.

She tried to think about all those who she managed to save. The genophage was cured and the Krogan people had a chance to finally rebuild their devastated homeworld. The Geth and the Quarians were figuring out a way to coexist and the Citadel races were slowly rebuilding all that was lost. Humanity and the Turians finally managed to get the past of the First Contact war behind them and even the Batarians were becoming more sensible with the Hegemony's end.

James Vega was working on getting his final N7 spec-ops certification, and Liara was writing a book with Javik. She felt a pang of sorrow for the ancient avenger as she imagined what utter black pits of loneliness the Prothean man must face every day.  
Ashley was sending her as much updates as she could over the official channels about her work at the Spectres and Garrus was serving as the Turian military liason on Earth as Primarch Corinthus coordinated the Hierarchy's decimated military to maintain security around Palaven and the core Turian territories.

Zaeed has joined Samara in an effort to keep the outlying Asari colonies pirate free in a vain attempt to gain her affection. Wrex was doing his best to keep the clans in line with Eve's help and Grunt was out somewhere on his grand quest to sample every human alcoholic drink still made on Earth before returning to the sorry remains of Aralakh company. Samantha has began seeing Kelly Chambers and for a moment Shepard smiled. Perhaps Specialist Traynor could not realise her dreams with EDI, not that Joker would have objected, but she was on the way to find happiness for herself. Doctor Chakwas was helping with the refugee centers to patch up the wounded and Jack was back to teaching the young biotics in the military camps. Responsibility has done wonders to the tattooed woman's attitude and outlook on life, and Jane felt the faintest echo of hope that even the most wrecked life could be turned around for the better.

Kasumi had dissapeared into the shadows no doubt to liberate credits from their rightful owners, and Jacob was about to get married. After going through that ordeal with his father, he deserved closure and a chance to show that he could do much better. Jane had no doubt that he would. _He will make a great father someday_ , she thought. Her smile ended as she thought of Miranda. The resourceful ex-Cerberus officer was still being investigated about her past ties with Cerberus, no matter how much she tried to vouch for her character.

The thought of Cerberus sent another pang of sorrow through her. The road to hell was truly paved with good intentions. How could the organisation founded to safeguard Humanity have fallen so far? The Illusive Man was, for all his faults, one who always cared about their people even when the Councillors have shown nothing but derision. Every time she ended the life of a Cerberus soldier, she thought that she could have just killed one of the men who served with her on the Normandy.

Could she have done something different? Perhaps if she blew up that damned Collector base, this would have never happened. Or perhaps the Reapers would have found a way to indoctrinate the Illiusive Man despite all her efforts to the contrary, and she was a fool for thinking she could have turned them back from the abyss, only if she tried harder. Still, she felt a pang of pity in her heart. For whatever atrocities they comminted, they were once good men. Could a life lived for a worthy cause be so utterly damned by the horrors they inflicted upon the innocent? She had no answer for that.

At least she managed to find a few of her old crew. Cortez was now working in his free time to bring supplies to the most devasted areas of London, and old Gardner has been all too happy to volunteer his services to cook for those in need. Donnely and Daniels were working with Adams to restore the Normandy to her full glory after the crash landing and she heard word that Goldstein has survived the war. Still too many good women and men sacrificed their lives.

"Keelah Shepard, the nightmares again?" The voice of Tali sounded from the bedroom as the commander stared at the mirror. "I'm all right Tali... just the usual nightmares."  
The slim figure of the Quarian appeared behind her as Tali hugged Jane and shook her visored head. "You can not beat yourself over it for the rest of your life. You will have to accept what happened and move on." Tali pulled her away from the mirror and lead her to the living room. Shepard collapsed on the brown, homely couch and Tali sat beside her. "I know, but I still feel I could have done better."

The alien girl shook her head again and put a three fingered hand on her shoulder. "You did the best you could. You even managed to drag Mordin out of that tower! We all thought you both died in that explosion." Jane nodded, trying to believe it herself. "You have saved billions and none of us would be alive if it was not for you."

Jane rested her chin on her fist and sighed. Whatever she lost, she still had Tali and her friends. That ought to count for enough, but still her victory tasted like the ashes of the dead. Seeing that there was nothing else to do, Tali took off her visor and boldly kissed her. "Keelah! If I need to cheer you up like this all the time, I'll get an infection!" That made Shepard smile as she found refuge from the past in the present.

 **Strike Cruiser Retribution, Segmentum Ultima**

The echoing corridors of the Strike Cruiser Retribution were lit as dimly as it was possible with the human serfs aboard, but shadows still clung to the gothic masonry of the warship's interior. Captain Aramus of the Fourth Company walked down towards his cell in his deep red robes and lit a thick rod of incense before closing the steel door behind him.

The faint light of the burning substance would have made the room pitch black for a mortal, but his enhanced eyes pierced every shadow. His artificier warplate and holy arms were displayed on the arming rack, lovingly maintained by the Techmarines and dusted every day by his own hands. He sat down onto a basic, sturdy chair before his desk and took out an autoquill from a drawer. He began writing his report to Chapter Master Angelos on a long vellum scroll, the chemical scent of the ink filling his sensitive nostrils.

As he wrote the report, his mind drifted to the chain of events that lead to this. The fateful war against the splinter fleet and their valiant last stand. The rapid, bloody war against the Aragast and his vile Black Legionaries and the ten year long secret crusade against the agents of the fallen Kyras.

He thought of all the brothers lost, centuries of honourable service cut short by treachery and deceit. The Chapter's honour tarnished forever and the decades of rebuilding that were needed before they would become more than a shadow of their past glory again.

Though his altered mind needed no sleep nor could feel despair, he was still beholden to the harrowing future that lay before all of them. As he wrote his latest account, he meditated upon the past. At least the Inquisition was assured of their loyalty and the Chapter would live on. He would have rather fallen on his own blade than suffer the horror of excommunication. He was Astartes. There was the Emperor, and there was duty. Nothing more. He swore a silent oath to carry out that duty to the best of his abilities as long as he drew breath.

All of his brothers would need to do their very best. Young and idealistic Thaddeus, embodying the hope for Humanity that his kind represented at the dawn of the Imperium. Wise and dependable Tarkus, who was the model Space Marines that even amongst the Ultramarines would be looked upon as an examplar. Avitus who was the very angel of death they were all supposed to be, knowing no mercy and no respite in bringing death to the Emperor's enemies. Cunning and independent Cyrus, who always found a way to outsmart an enemy they could not defeat in a conventional battle. Stalwart Jonah, always pragmatic Martellus, noble Gabriel and his predecessor, Captain Thule, who served even after death. If only Apothecary Gordian was here to help them, but he has heroically given his life in the final battle against the Tyranids. May all of them do their duty with such honour.

A few minutes after he finished the report, he heard the footfalls of his kind on the corridors and a knock soon sounded on his door. "Enter." he said and looked up as his eyes instantly adjusted to the light coming from the corridor as the door opened.

Jonah Orion stood before his cell, the ancient librarian wearing his blue robes and leaning on his psychic staff, a habit he picked up after his body was shattered twice. First against the vile demon that temporarily possessed him during the second Aurelian crusade, and than in the final battle against Kyras.

"Brother Captain, I could sense your turmoil from a Segmentum away. Come, pray with me in the chapel." The wise librarian stepped back, and the captain nodded solemnly. Their souls needed the Emperor's guidence now more than ever, and he took the incense burner from his desk as he joined the Librarian. 


	2. A Citadel marooned

**The Citadel, orbiting around Earth**

Councilor Tevos was verifying the various aid convoys that were headed to Thessia when the newest report came from the Crucible science team. When she had finished reading their latest proposal, she immediately summoned Sparatus and Valern to the Council Chambers.

"Preposterous! This is completely insane. You can not be considering this!" The Salarian councilor exclaimed after reading the solution that the science team have put forward in order to move the Citadel out of the debris-choked orbit of Earth back to its rightful place in the Serpent nebula.

"This does sound like a bad idea from an Extranet blog." Sparatus agreed and shook his head as his mandibles clicked. "Even if it is theoretically possible, how can we guarantee that the Citadel will remain intact? The repairs are still underway."

"I do not intend to let them do anything to the Citadel until they have run enough tests to work out every problem." She replied, understanding her fellows' reluctance. The plan was a long shot, but whatever Reaper technology moved the Citadel to Earth has been damaged beyond repair when the Crucible wiped the blight of the Reapers from the galaxy once and for all. It already took a lot of the Council's resources to begin the repairs on the damaged relays and the cost in the element zero used alone was astronomical.

"I am not sure how much faith we can put in their assurances." The Turian put his trademark air quotes around the last word. Say what you will about humans, they had a way with succinct, pithy hand gestures. "If we risk the Citadel, we need to evacuate first and make damned sure this plan is going to work."

Valern shook his head and looked in dismay at the other two. "First the cure for the genophage, now this. Taking so many risks in such a short notice of time will lead to nothing good." The man crossed his slender arms across his chest and glared at his compatriots.

"The smallest malfunction and the Citadel can come crashing down upon the Earth. It has to be moved." Tevos insisted and spread her arms in a gesture of understanding. "Without the humans, we would have lost this war. We can not endanger their homeworld any more than if it were one of ours, if there is an alternative. The science teams have already conducted small scale experiments but they need our authorization to proceed."

The other two nodded in agreement. Nobody could doubt Commander Shepard's heroics and the dedication her people showed against the Repear threat. "Just make sure they practice their tests in space that is utterly lifeless. I do not want a second Alpha Relay incident." Sparatus looked the Asari in the eye and lowered his voice. "Our fleets are in tatters, our worlds ruined. We can not afford a war."

"I still maintain that this course of action is unwise and I will personally make sure that every safety precaution is taken." Valern declared before he stormed from the council room. The Turian and Asari shared a troubled look. "This meeting is..." She began but Sparatus finished it for her. "Adjourned. Lets get back to work. The relief effort coordinators need as much assistance as they can get."

Doctor Cole was happy with the results of their latest tests. With the help of Doctor Verner and the scientists studying the what little of the Reaper tech that survived the final explosion, they finally found a way to put the Citadel back to its rightful place... at least in theory.

The Charon relay was simply not powerful enough to transport the Citadel, and its own drives were too damaged to salvage. The energy blast that destroyed the Reapers left some of their superstructure intact but fried most of their more delicate systems beyond salvage. The only option was to try something else. Building a relay big enough to transport the Citadel would take decades, possibly centuries and would require resources that the Council simply could not muster.

But amongst the files recovered from the Crucible, there were theories about the use of dark energy and mass effect fields to create a tear in the fabric of reality and make what is in effect a stable wormhole for a short period of time. The mass effect probe would create a hyperdense singularity every second and bend the fabric of space time first, before a concentrated dark energy explosion would create a rupture. If done precisely at the same moment at two places and the dark energy pulses connected by quantum entanglement, a temporary portal would form between two points in space.

The power consumption of such an act was immense and the first result resulted in the transported object arriving as a condensed mass of matter. But with later tests, they managed to transport a fighter from the orbit of Neptune to that of Uranus. The theory did work, but making it safe for the citadel was another matter entirely. With a look at her picture of Jacob, Dr Cole resumed working at her station. The next test would require a freighter being moved between two neighboring systems.

 **Commander Shepard's temporary residence, outside Vancouver**

 _-No subject - From Grunt:-_

 _"SHEPURD! Come and meet me at the beach bar tonigt! We"ll drink untill we puke and I bring the VODKA and RYNCOL you bring the Tali and well have a good night! SHEPADR!"_

She chuckled and looked up to see Tali watching an Extranet video on her omnitool. "Grunt just invited us for some drinking later tonight, do you feel well enough for us to go?" The Quarian paused her video and checked something on her suit interface. "I'm well Jane, we should be good. We'll just have to watch out for you." Shepard rolled her eyes and looked at her friend. "So you're saying I can't hold my drink?" She crossed her arms in front of her chest and tried to look insulted. "You passed out from three rounds and ended up on Aria's couch in the Purgatory, Shepard. I'm not taking any chances with you." Tali replied and mimed being passed out on the couch. "Oh come on, their glasses were twice the size than the usual!" She retorted and moved to hug her.

They met Grunt and his crate full of vodka bottles at the beach where the prefabricated shelters housing the temporarily displaced people ended. There was a repurposed cargo crate with jury rigged neon signs that everybody just called the bar.

"Shepard! I got something for you!" Grunt laughed and charged the women to give both a bone crushing bear hug. "It is good to see you too Grunt." Shepard managed to say while Tali squirmed. "Keelah, watch out for my bones!" He dropped them back to the ground and put the crate on the improvised bar before taking a bottle out. He cracked it open unceremoniously on the edge and poured the clear liquid down his throat so fast that she cringed invardly. How in hell will she keep up? The Spectre who can not hold her drink is not the best rumor to be circulated about someone. She caught the next bottle that Grunt threw at her and screwed off the top to take a sip. Tali shook her head and took out her drinking straw, also known as the 'induction port' and bought a bottle of dextro-amino rum from the bartender as they began chatting about the good old days.

The next morning Shepard awoke in their temporary apartment with Tali groaning about a headache, vaguely remembering that she ended up throwing empty vodka bottles for Grunt to headbutt out of the air mid flight. She got up to check her messages and frowned as she realized that Admiral Hackett has called her last night. She sighed and opened the message.

 _-Status Update - Admiral Hackett -_

 _Commander,_

 _The engineers have completed the repairs of the Normandy and the Council is requesting to see you tomorrow at 16.00 PM. Assemble your team and prepare the ship to be ready to leave the system in a week. We are all in your debt for your heroic actions on Earth and I tried to get you as much time as you need to recover, but something came up._

 _Hackett out._

"Admiral Hackett got a love letter for us. Apparently the vacation is over and we need to get the crew back in shape." She turned to Tali and went to get a painkiller for her hangover.

 **The Citadel, orbiting around Earth**

Having managed to make herself presentable in time, Shepard now stood before the Citadel Council and the hologram of Admiral Hackett. After Udina's betrayal, he was fulfilling the duties of the human Councilor until a new one could be appointed. With the almost total loss of Earth's political leadership that was a task easier said than done.

"Thank you for coming, Commander. As you know, with the Citadel's technology compromised we wish to move it to a safe distance from Earth. Recently Doctor Cole came up with a radical theory to accomplish that and we need the Normandy to watch over the project." Tevos looked down on the Spectre and noticed with relief that her facial scarring was gone. Only the glowing red eyes remained to mark her days with Cerberus.

"This is a very high risk venture, Commander, but we are confident that you can secure it against anyone who may try to interfere. We need the best of the best and that is you." Sparatus continued. The skeptical Turian had recently warmed up to Shepard in the wake of the Reaper invasion, an ally from the most unexpected of places.

"This experiment will end in failure but the technology is too advanced for us not to ensure it does not end up in the wrong hands." If a Salarian could look pouting, Salern was doing a good job at it. "Still there is no one else who can guarantee its safety like you, Commander."

"I will do whatever I can, Councilor." Shepard nodded hear head in respect and turned to Hackett. "What is this new experimental technology I'll be guarding?"

"Doctors Cole and Verner are trying to create a wormhole with mass effect fields. You will have a detailed report waiting for you on the Normandy, Commander Shepard. You are our best and brightest and we place our hopes in your hands once more." The aged admiral stressed the last words, and Shepard could not help but smile. "Thank you, Admiral, Councilors. I will not fail."

 **Strike Cruiser Retribution, Segmentum Ultima**

Renewed vigour coursed through the body of Captain Aramus as his nervous system interfaced with the Machine Spirits of Mortis Gloriam, his Mark 8 power armour, making him whole once more. The green lenses of the red and gold helmet glowed with inner fire as the arming serfs reverently bowed and filed out of the meditation cell.

He stood over two and a half meters, a golden Aquila on his chest and a golden raven with a ruby teardrop of blood on his left pauldron, the right bearing the Crux Terminatus. Golden skulls adorned his kneeguards and and a golden Iron Halo rose above his backpack.

On his waist he wore the sanctified power sword, The Blade Unrelenting, blessed by the great Azariah Vidya himself to be the bane of all those who served the Warp. He finished loading the kraken shells into the Pistol of Terra, a holy bolter pistol adorned with the sacred verses to the Emperor.

Thus armed with the holy relics of his Chapter, he could feel the weapons' Spirits interface with those of his armour and a burst of diagnostics data filled his mind. Filled with righteous purpose, he walked to the lift that would take him to the bridge of the venerable Strike Cruiser.

"Greetings, Brother Captain." The metallic voice of Martellus greeted him as he entered the dimly lit bridge, red lights giving his crimson armour a bloody glow. "Well met, Brother Martellus. Have the Astropaths deciphered the last message?"

The Techmarine nodded and interfaced with the hololithic display on the bridge, bringing up the charts of a remote star system. Five planets orbiting a yellow-orange sun. A frozen outer iceball, two unremarkable gas giants, a barely developed agri-world and a barren rock blasted to a charred wasteland by the star's powerful radiation.

"The Veralis system. Unimportant until recently when a Mechanicus surveyor team has found a heavy concentration of various rare ores in the mantle. The development of the mining and manufactoria have not began yet, but there have been reports of the perfidious Tau Empire sending forces to capture the planet. The Mechanicus can not allow that, but the local garrison is not strong enough to repel even a small raiding party."

The Captain nodded, his eidetic memory bringing up weapon specifications and doctrines related to the blue xenos and their cowardly way of making war. "Tau this far into the Segmentum. They are getting bolder and bolder with the Imperium's might being tied up by the Great Enemy and the Tyranids. We must show them the error of their ways."

"I will make sure the ship is prepared for the Warp jump, Captain. We will teach the xenos scum not to meddle in the affairs of the Machine God." The Techmarine became absorbed in a Noospheric conversion with the Enginseers aboard the Cruiser and Aramus strode off to prepare his ragged company for war.


	3. Through the Warp

**The empty void of space, in the Serpent Nebula**

The Normandy dropped out of light speed beside the SSV Pascal, two of the damaged cruisers which have been refitted as science vessels after the battle for Earth. With some of their troop compartments and weapons ruined beyond repair, they have been replaced with increased sensor systems, including a state of the art Radar and Ladar arrays and enlarged science labs.  
Attached to the underside of both vessels were the detachable probes. Nicknamed Darkstars, these automated devices were not much than radiation and mass effect field generators built around a massive element zero core and given basic kinetic barriers and thrusters. They were both worth a fortune in the eezo alone that was needed to power them and Shepard could see why any outlaw would consider snagging such a prize.

"This is Doctor Cole from the SSV Newton. We will travel a tenth of a light years ahead before the devices are deployed. The SSV Einstein will cover us during the experiment. Cole out." Shepard smiled, sure that Hackett have sent that particular carrier as a symbolic gesture. "This is Commander Shepard. We will stand ready when you give the signal. Normandy, out."

She turned to walk from the galaxy map to the cockpit, idly staring out of the view port while Joker and EDI traded their usual good natured banter. She has managed to get almost all of her crew back for the mission. For some like Williams, this was a political posting to show the support of the Citadel towards her, while for others it was a post where they could have a respite from politics, like Wrex who has managed to attend while Eve kept control admirably on Tuchanka. Even Kasumi made an appearance in order to confuse whatever police force she managed to annoy with her latest heist. Only Jacob was not on the ship, but he was present on the SSV Newton with his fiancee.

The roughly circular form of the Darkstar probe slowly detached from the SSV Pascal and began its slow drift towards its destination a thousand kilometers from the two ships. Even in the case something went wrong, the destruction of the probe should not endanger its escorts. It did not look much to Shepard, an ungainly ball covered with thrusters and sensor vanes as it grew ever smaller until it became a shining point and was lost in the field of stars. Appearances can be deceptive, she knew.

She turned to see Kelly Chambers standing beside Traynor. Seeing the Reapers vanquished rekindled the young woman's adventurous spirit and she felt once again ready to see the galaxy.  
"You will not regret coming, Kelly. We are seeing history being made and the Reapers are dead. Whatever pirate wishes to try their luck will learn the one rule of the Galaxy." Supported by specialist Traynor, Kelly Chambers weakly smiled back at Shepard.  
"I'll be fine, Commander. The past is behind us... wait what rule is that?" Kelly seemed more like her old self with every passing day, the look of cheerful curiosity on her face infectious as Jane smiled back. "Don't fuck with Shepard."

 **The Warp**

Aramus praying in the Chapel when Avitus joined him. "Cleansing your soul before we cleanse the xenos filth, Brother Captain? It will be good not to fight our own for a change." The cybernetic sergeant grinned in anticipation, though it was more a snarl of hate than a jovial grin. "I can not wait to wring their pathetic little necks with my bare hands."

"Do not underestimate the enemy. What they lack in courage and honour they make up for with their cowardly treachery and sly cunning." The Captain's powerful jaw locked in a grimace of hatred. Few xenos were as worthy of contempt as the Tau, only outdone by the Eldar on the field of deception and vile treachery. They came with lies and offers of friendship, never meeting an enemy in honourable battle if they could help it. "Whatever their tricks, we will show them such fury that they will know terror before they die."

"Well said Captain. I have been killing heretics before their pathetic empire rose. We will show them the true meaning of overwhelming firepower once I get them in my field of fire." Avitus chuckled grimly, before they turned to the stained glass representation of the Emperor. "He only asks us that we hate."

 **The empty void of space, in the Serpent Nebula**

Captain Shepard stood on the bridge of the Normandy as the science cruisers reported their progress. The Darkstar devices were both stationed and ready to begin their final test before the Citadel was deemed safe to try this radical method of FTL.  
"This is Doctor Cole of the SSV Newton. Test commencing in five seconds. Five, four, three, two, one, start!" Her eyes narrowed as she watched the holographic map in front of her display the star field and the round probe.  
Arcs of blue lightning began to flash between its vanes as it built up power and even through the gulf of space she could feel the slight lurch as the lightning bolts shot out to impact on... something in space, an explosion of unknown particles and micro-singularities distorting the star field in a flash of blue-green energy.

"By the Goddess..." Liara muttered beside her and even Javik appeared impressed as the globe of energy suddenly surged outwards, until it was a circular loop some five kilometers across. Inside the loop, the other probe was visible as the wormhole stabilized itself. Shepard looked wide eyed in wonder at the tactical implications such technology could have.  
"This is the SSV Pascal. All readings clear on our end." Doctor Cole appeared to smile with the pride of a scientist who knew her name would be lauded for centuries. "We did it. Launch probes through the wormhole before proceeding with the fighter tests. If everything goes well, the SSV Einstein will be the first ship to try the Cole Wormhole generator... all right, Cole-Verner Generator." She corrected herself after Jacob raised an eyebrow beside her.

 **The next day, in the Serpent Nebula**

Shepard stretched her arms and yawned as the alarm clock woke her up. Tali cursed something in Quarian and shut the damned thing off. "Rise and shine Tali, it is the big day." She got out of bed and began to dress. Being intimate with a Quarian required one to keep the room as sterile as possible and taking medication to dampen the bacteria all humans carried in their bodies.  
Were it not for her Cerberus implants, it would have made her life extremely uncomfortable. Installing the medical grade decontamination equipment on every access point of the captain's quarters did help. _Still she was better off avoiding dairy products, but that was a price worth paying,_ she thought as she got dressed.

"Camo pattern, Jane, really?" Tali rolled her eyes and began the long, arduous process of putting on her suit. "I just don't want to disappoint Kasumi next time." She replied and quickly put on her Alliance uniform. "We'll have to talk about that later!" The Quarian replied and Shepard shook her head in haste. "Its not what you think! At the Silversun party..." She turned to admire Tali for a moment and lost her train of thought. "My eyes are up here, Shepard. Now come help me get into this thing." She chuckled and moved to help Tali get everything in order before double checking each environmental seal.

The rest of the morning passed without incident and once more, Shepard stood gazing at the magnified image of the Darkstar probe. The SSV Pascal was holding orbit beside the Normandy, and as the all clear signal was given, the probe powered up to rend time and space.

The tear in space time began to swell until it was fifty kilometers wide with the Citadel clearly visible on the other side over the backdrop of Earth. Her spirits rose at the beauty of the azure and emerald planet, and she could not help but to understand the concerns of Terra Firma and Cerberus had in the past. It was a pristine jewel in space and not even her past as a petty gang member in the slums of the city could change that.

The portal stabilized after a few minutes and with majestic slowness, the Citadel fired its maneuvering thrusters and began to fly towards the portal. Everybody on the Normandy watched with reverent silence as the gargantuan space station began to emerge, the probe flying deftly out of its path while Mordin muttered something under his breath as he checked the readouts. "Outstanding, truly marvelous breakthrough. Implications on galactic economy..." His voice trailed off awkwardly as the rest remained silent.

The transition went smoothly as the crew watched in amazement, and in an hour the Citadel was moving to its rightful place in the core of the nebula once more. The portal began to fluctuate as it did before its collapse in earlier experiments, but the hue of the looped lightning began to change to a violet and red glow. "Most perturbatory. Reading anomalous particles, no set structure, dimensions shifting!" Mordin exclaimed as the image inside the wormhole winked out of existence, replaced by quickly shifting images of nebulae, star fields and empty black void.

Alarms began to blare on every ship as they withdrew to a safe distance, the probe flying back to the bay of the SSV Newton. "Pascal in Earth orbit reports nothing unusual. Severance between the two ends of the wormhole most likely cause. Image pattern changes indicate that it will settle on a new entry point in approximately five minutes!" Mordin chattered excitedly, while Miranda looked at the readings with a frown. "Can you make anything out of these particles? These... should not exist, their atomic structure is mutating as if alive. EDI, check the sensors, something must be interfering with them!"

"All systems are functioning normally." EDI replied, her metallic fingers drumming on the railing with something close to anxiety. "The readings are true, but the particles are of an unknown and impossible composition. I can not explain this phenomenon." The scenes slowed down in the portal, the image slowly settling onto a starry field with the sun of a nearby system shining its dim, orange light in the background.  
Shepard felt a lurch in her stomach, a horrible feeling of surreal dislocation she had only ever felt once before when the Normandy was in the orbit of the ruined planet of Carcosa. She had strange nightmares for days after their proximity to that cursed planet. Something felt wrong with the entire universe and she bit down a curse. "EDI, ready shields and weapon systems just in case!"

 **The Warp**

The vox in Aramus's helmet came to life as he was finishing his prayers. "Brother Captain, this is Jonah Orion. I have detected some sort of... anomaly, a ripple in the Warp. The Navigator and the Astropaths report similar observations. There may be an active Warp portal in the system. We must prepare for the worst." He gritted his teeth. First the Tau, now the possibility of a daemonic incursion. "Make sure the souls of our brothers are prepared if we face damnation today."


	4. First Contact

**The Serpent Nebula**

Shepard did not envy Doctor Cole as she was summoned to the Council to explain this mess. At least the Citadel got through safe, but she was sure that this was the last time the technology had been used. The risk of a wormhole opening to unknown territories was just as bad as the activation of a dormant relay.

Spy probes were sent through the portal after it was determined to be stable, but luckily they all found nothing beside the usual stellar background radiation. The wormhole did not appear to have linked anything instantly dangerous to the Serpent nebula, and for that she was grateful. She also had the sinking feeling that she knew who will be being sent to scout out the other side, a thought that made her already irritated. At least she had the best team of the galaxy behind her. Whatever was lurking on the other side, they were ready to face it. Never a dull day in the life of a Spectre.

 **The Veralis system**

Reality buckled and tore as the Warp vomited out into real space with a sickening rainbow of colours that had no name or place in the material universe. From this maw of daemonic illumination the Retribution shot out, trailing tendrils of fading ectoplasm as the portal closed behind it.  
Powerful augur arrays began sweeping the system for anything unusual as the Strike Cruiser set course for Veralis Secundus. After a few minutes they have found what they were looking for, the disgustingly alien shape of an Emissary class Tau cruiser. The tactical systems of the bridge quickly retrieved every information the Blood Ravens had on these xenos vessels. Very well armed, they never the less possessed rather weak shields and hulls for their size and their top speed was lower than that of the nimble Astartes Strike Cruiser.

"Martellus, get us within close range. We can not stay in front of it for long and withstand its firepower. Get us close and bring our broadsides to fire!" The Captain ordered, knowing that to rest in front of a Tau gun line was a never a wise idea. The Retribution's plasma drives flared as it plummeted towards the Tau vessel at half the speed of light, its heavy prow lance powering up to unleash beam after beam of incandescent blue death.

The Tau vessel's shields were already raised as the first lance beam hit, its sensors no doubt at least as potent as those of the Imperial vessel. It quickly turned its flattened prow towards the Astartes vessel, gravitic missiles and railgun fire blasting towards the Strike cruiser with commendable efficiency. The Emissary did not attempt to charge, holding its orbital position as it rained death at the incoming imperial vessel.

"Void shields holding, but they will not hold for long, Captain." Martellus reported as the voids displaced the incoming railgun fire and shielded the cruiser from the plasma detonations as the gravitic missiles found them with unerring accuracy. The Tau vessel's own shields were able to stand up to the heavy lance battery, but as the Strike Cruiser closed to a hundred thousand kilometers range, its prow bombardment cannon opened up, a devastating railgun of its own with a firepower that no individual tau gun could match.  
The huge shell crossed the distance between the two ships in a second, detonating into a vivid, kilometer wide fireball as it hit its target. Shields collapsing as they took the brunt of the giant bombardment shell, the Tau vessel fired a last desperate volley as it suddenly accelerated with an elegant agility and began speeding towards the star. While it could not match the top speed of the Strike Cruiser, it accelerated faster.

"Captain, our sensors can not pick them up if they enter the star's corona, while their own Blacklight systems will be able to track us with... " Martellus's report was cut short as the last volley of gravitic missiles managed to overload the final layer of the coruscating void shields, the Cruiser rocking under the shockwave. "Shields down, Brother Captain! It will take an hour to recharge them! If the Tau manage to bring their prow weapons upon us, our victory will become very costly."

"After them in the name of the Emperor! They know they can't risk to turn and fire on us without getting into boarding range, and if they do that, they are dead." Aramus scowled and glared hate at the image of the fleeing Tau cruiser. "If we let them get lost in the corona, they will return with their shields fully charged at their leisure."  
He looked at the enemy cruiser's image as if it was already a wreckage. "But they can't loose themselves if we stay right on their tail." Lance fire blazing from the prow mounted cannon to keep the enemy's shields from recharging, the Retribution turned to speed after the Emissary towards the burning atmosphere of the star.

 **The Serpent Nebula**

The Normandy slid through the anomaly without any problems and found nothing as EDI scanned the surrounding area. They seemed to have been transported into somewhere in the Attican Traverse, though some of the star charts seemed a bit off. At least they knew how to get home, and were not lost in somewhere in the Andromeda galaxy.  
A quantum entanglement probe was stationed on this end of the portal and its other pair was now hooked up to the Normandy's CIC room. Activating the stealth systems, the Normandy engaged its FTL and moved to investigate the nearby system.

It was an uneventful journey that ended in an uneventful system. At least there were two gas giants to discharge the drives with, but otherwise they found nothing of interest until EDI detected life signs from the second planet.  
"Commander, I have detected light and heat signatures on the night side consistent with small settlements. No orbital presence I can detect." The silvery woman reported and Shepard let out a long sigh. "Lets hope the locals are friendly and got a few answers for us. Suit up people." She strode off towards the arming locker as the ship moved towards the world, fifty times faster than light.

 **The Veralis system**

The two UT-47A Kodiak encountered no resistance as they entered the atmosphere. The lack of replies to the Normandy's hails was worrying, but the initial scans showed the planet to be a backwater so it was possible that they simply had an old, malfunctioning communications relay.  
Cortez and Goldstein put the shuttles down in the forest beside the nearest settlement, a small town that could hold roughly two thousand people. She holstered her Hurricane SMG on her belt and locked the heavy duty M-99 Saber to her back. The former provided a near limitless amount of shots while the latter could blow up anything save a Harvester with relative ease. The locals will be no doubt impressed.

"All right people. We do this safe and we do this right. Grunt, Wrex, you are taking point with me. Jack, Samara and Miranda, you are in the middle as support. Tali and Liara, guard our rear. Javik, Zaeed, you watch our left flank. James, Garrus, the right." Williams and Mordin was staying on the Normandy with EDI to make sure they had a ship to go back to if shit hit the fan. A chorus of acknowledgments sounded in her earpiece and she began leading the best team in the galaxy towards the edge of the forest.

The sight that greeted her was not a welcome one. Two score of chained humans were being escorted by a squad of short, stocky aliens in bulky ochre armour and a rabble of the ugliest creatures she had ever seen. They looked like a horrible melding of Turians and Vorcha, not that she would ever offend Garrus by voicing that thought as the team moved into the cover of huge granite boulders. Not that she had to worry about that.  
"Those sons of bitches are almost as ugly as you, Garrus. Did your people got a party with the Vorcha and forgot to invite us?" Grunt laughed as Shepard took out her binoculars to scan the scene. "Well that big one almost looks like you, my dear friend! A lost relative?" Garrus quipped as a huge, lumbering beast came into view, obviously related to the avian aliens.

Bile rose in her throat as she saw that the ragged group of people were civilians of all ages, with children and elderly chained amongst them, were being directed by well placed blows by the avians. They were no prisoners of war, that was apparent. If there was one thing she hated with a passion, it was slavers. "Get into position and cover me. Be ready to unleash hell, I'm ending this farce right fucking now."

Flanked by the towering Krogans, Shepard strode towards the raiders with her voice amplified by her helmet's speakers. She saw them talking with the humans, so she was sure she would be understood. "Freeze and stop where you are! If you move my team will drop you in a second!" That got their attentions. The avians bristled and the stockies stopped raising their blocky, bulky rifles. One with a white helmet, obviously the squad leader, turned to her and spoke in accented English. "Explain yourself Gue'la, or prepare to die!"

"I'm Commander Jane Shepard of the Systems Alliance and a Spectre of the Citadel Council. Your treatment of human civilians is a clear violation of galactic law and you will desist right in this instant!" Up close and personal, she towered over the diminutive alien. It was not as short as a Volus and Shepard have never quite seen anything like it. It had hoof like feet and four fingers on each hand, its face hidden behind an impassive helmet.

"Surrender to serve the Greater Good human, and your life will be spared. Resistance will be met with deadly force." It took all her willpower not to raise the Saber at the tone of the alien. _Did the fucker just offer her slavery at the exchange of her life as smugly as if it was the best deal this side of Noveria?_  
"No you arrogant little... you surrender right now and I will speak a good word for you when the court hauls your ass over the coals for war crimes!" She gave the alien a glare that would have made Aria proud and sent the Citadel Council rethinking their policies, but the 'arrogant little bastard' did not even flinch. "The threats of your dying empire mean nothing, Gue'la. The stars will belong to the Tau Empire and in the name of the Greater Good, you will assist us whenever you like it or not!"

As the Tau, as they were apparently called, resumed raising their bulky rifled, Shepard had enough. Reaction speeds honed by brutal N7 training and further enhanced by her implants sent her fist slamming right into the helmet of the squad leader. The nearest alien reacted with commendable speed, firing its bulky rifle in her direction just as she fired back at it with the Saber.  
Even as she dodged the incandescent pulse of plasma searing beside her, she heard the alarms chime as her kinetic and biotic barriers collapsed instantly even from the near miss. _Holy fuck what kind of guns are these_ , she thought as she saw the shot alien rise from the ground, its chest plate dented. She could not survive a hit from such a weapon and she lunged forward, her Omni-blade burying itself in the alien's throat in a spray of vivid blue ichor.

Seeing that brilliant blast of plasma boil a meter wide crater into the earth near Shepard was all that her team needed. Jack cursed and pulled the rest of the alien squad into the air with a singularity. They tried in vain to shoot back as mass driver fire pinged off their chestplates without any apparent effect. A trooper missed by the biotic attack suddenly went down with a hole in its neck. "Target the seals!" Garrus ordered and quickly zoomed in onto the next alien just as Samara created another singularity to keep them from retaliating accurately while plasma fire melted the ground around her team. Shepard launched a biotic shockwave to blast the aliens that managed to escape the pull down into the earth, breaking necks and limbs. Liara was the next one to pull them up into the air even before they managed to hit the ground and she saw James throw a fragmentation grenade into the middle of the floating squad.

Wrex laughed and blasted the nearest of the ugly avians with a burst from his Revenant rifle, gaining a new respect for the aliens as it went down only after he emptied the whole clip into it. The aliens were hellishly fast and the other one was upon him, raining blows from a bladed rifle that battered the Krogan Battlemaster back, each hit gouging new lines into his red armour. Taken aback as the blade began to pierce the armour and draw blood, Wrex knew this was a battle he had to win quickly, and not with brute strength.  
Never in his seven centuries did he ever face something this fast that was also a match for him in brute strength. One thing it did not have was all the experience that came with such age. Wrex feinted to go for his rifle with his left hand and delivered a thunderous right hook to its beaked face with enough force to crack the bone. He followed with as strong a head butt as he could manage, sending the alien sprawled to the ground where a quick stomp on its neck put it out of commission.

"I am KROGAN!" Grunt bellowed as he blasted a stringy avian with his Claymore, dark green ichor splattering his armour. Another tried to lunge at him but he charged it down to the ground, kneeling on the alien's chest and pounding its face into a bloody ruin.  
The ape-like monster came charging at Zaeed as he ducked behind a rock after Tali managed to shoot the rider off it with a burst of SMG fire. The animal simply smashed the five ton boulder aside like a chew toy and he barely had time to roll away as a heavy fist came crashing down where his head happened to be just a second ago.  
Holding the gun with one hand, the wily old mercenary emptied the thermal clip of his Mattock rifle into the side of the beast with no apparent effect beside a splatter of green gore landing all over his body as the wounded animal turned to face him with a screech of rage.  
"Eat this you ugly motherfucker!" He lobbed the inferno grenade down its gaping, stinking maw and scrambled back as flames slowly began to consume its head. It took half a minute to die even after that, and he emptied another clip into its head just to make sure.

Shepard was not a religious person, but she still thanked all of Earth's gods and goddesses that these aliens seemed to have been so surprised by biotics. Any other team would have been blasted to ash in ten seconds against that kind of firepower. As the singularity faded, she went for the nearest still living enemy.  
"Look you asshole, I generally like aliens but you just make me want to join Terra Firma." She punctuated every word with a blow to the head, before realizing that the Tau's neck have snapped mid sentence. They were more fragile than they appeared and with her enhanced muscles, her victim's neck had snapped like dry wood. She throw the corpse to the ground to asses the situation, noting with relief that the civilians have all fled amidst the carnage.

All the alien slavers were dead. With a dreadful realization she saw that all the wounds were on the neck and arm seals of their armour. Nothing they threw at them had penetrated their chestplates. The last of the avians was trying to flee just as Javik managed to shoot it in the back of its quilled head with his Particle rifle. "Get into cover, everybody!" She yelled as she heard the unmistakable sounds of engines, sprinting with the Krogan towards the nearest boulder.

The now familiar ochre hue of the incoming tank left no doubt to its allegiance, and the rain of plasma from its gatling prow cannon was no surprise. What was a surprise that how fast it could chew up the granite. "Shepard, catch!" She has never been so happy to find out that Grunt had brought the M920-Cain. She caught the heavy weapon and began to charge it as their cover continued to diminish at an alarming rate, a hundred kilograms of rock vapourising with every blue shot.

"Fire in the hole!" Shepard popped out of cover and fired the polonium and mass enhanced warhead at the incoming tank, taking shelter as the missile hit and shook the earth with a loud blast and a flash of orange light. When she looked up she expected to see a wreck inside a crater, but the damn thing was still flying. "Keelah what are they made off?" Tali exclaimed and Shepard noticed that the armour was cracked, falling off in places to expose the machinery under it.

"We cracked its skin! Warp it as much as you can and focus fire!" Miranda, Samara, Jack and Liara moved in unison, their fists glowing with blue energy as they slammed their power into the side of the enemy hover tank, the sudden change in mass causing flakes of the armour plates to fall away. "Fire! Bring that thing down!" She yelled, unleashing a biotic flare, and the rest of the squad begin pouring everything they had at the exposed tank.

But it was still not enough. She was about to order the retreat when four beams of mass accelerator fire slammed into the side of the tank, finally making it explode into a blue ball of plasma. "Now that was a though nut to crack!" sounded the cheerful voice of Cortez over the comms.  
"Thank you guys!" She sighed in relief as the Kodiak shuttles hovered into view only to hear Joker's worried voice in her ear. "Commander, the enemy got a corvette coming your way! Get in the Kodiaks ASAP while I bring the Normandy down to scoop you up! Cortez, Goldstein, prepare for evasive manoevers. that thing is coming in fast!"


	5. Starfire and Manta

**The Veralis system, stellar orbit**

The Retribution chased the fleeing Emissary cruiser through the blazing corona of the star, its heavy lance burning gashes into the ochre hull of the enemy warship.  
"All power to the engines! We can not loose the xenos filth!" Aramus commanded as Martellus sat in the captain's throne, interfacing with the mighty Machine Spirit of the venerable Strike Cruiser.  
"Brother Captain, I am detecting weapon launch!" The Techmarine yelled as gravitic missiles flew from the prow of the Tau cruiser.  
However instead of trying to turn around in time to catch the Astartes ship, they rained down onto the surface of the star, exploding in blue gouts of plasma in concentric rings.  
Great plumes of yellow solar flares erupted from the surface of the star as the shockwave travelled across it. The Strike Cruiser shuddered as the yellow flames of plasma licked its left side, the sensors blacking out for a few seconds. "We can not let them escape!"

"Use their own tactics against them! A volley of plasma torpedoes would give them more than they bargained for!" Growled Avitus, but Martellus shook his head. "Our torpedoes are too powerful. They could induce a nova in the star and that would burn Veralis Secundus to a charred globe of ash, as well as do significant damage to our ship without the Voids to protect us."  
"Bah! We always have to coddle the weak." Avitus scowled but did not press the issue, no doubt more concerned about the cruiser than the planet's inhabitants.

"Captain, I'm seeing a launch... something is headed our way!" Cyrus magnified the image just in time to show a dozen Tau battlesuits flying towards the Strike Cruiser, with something ominous and cylindrical shackled between them as Manta gunships and Barracuda fighters flew escort.  
"A fusion bomb! Captain, if they can cause a massive breach in our hull, the solar flares will burn through the interior and surely detonate our plasma reactors or ammunition magazines!" Martellus's voice was showing a remarkable degree of urgency for one of the Martian priesthood. "Triangulating approach vectors. The bomb will land near the bridge."

"All squads, suit up and prepare for void combat. Extremis heat hazard conditions are in effect. Secure all ammunition and prepare to face armoured resistance! Remember that even the smallest breach in your armour means instant immolation... but the same is true for the enemy." Aramus commanded in case there were multiple battlesuit teams, and sprinted towards the nearest airlock with each stride covering five meters.  
The point defense turbo lasers dotting the Retribution's adamantium and ceramite hull blasted away at the Tau attack craft, impaling them on bright blue beams with commendable accuracy. However the damage was done as the battlesuit team slipped past them and began to anchor the fusion bomb to the hull.

"Two Riptide heavy battlesuits and eight Crisis battlesuits." Cyrus confirmed on the Vox as the Captain sent back the images from his helmets. Had it not been for the various outcroppings on the Strike Cruiser's hull giving them cover, the Riptides would have detected and decimated them as the three squads of Astartes moved with lightning speed from shadow to shadow.  
The brilliant fire of the star lit the hull from below in a hellish inferno, whisps of bright yellow plasma caressing along the hull as temperatures hit a million Kelvin. Enough to incinerate any organic matter, but not enough to burn through the armour of Astartes or Tau alike. Helm lenses and suit AIs dimmed the view until the blinding flames were a mix of orange and yellow.  
Tau battlesuits were well armoured, mobile, and possessed a devastating array of firepower. Their only weakness was the alien Tau piloting them. Aided by on board AI, they had no trouble annihilating foes at range in open terrain, but up close, they were slow and sluggish like all mortals. Even the most powerful guns in creation were useless if one could not bring them to aim at the enemy.

"For the Emperor!" Aramus shouted into the vox of his helm, not caring that there was no sound in space. Squad Avitus opened fire from their lascannons and plasma cannons, a barrage beams of energized laser and blasts of fire hotter than the core of any star converging on the enemy war machine. Its shields failed in a teal blast of energy, the hull cracking and melting as plasma clung to it.  
Tarkus and his veterans opened fire on the weakened battlesuit with Kraken bolts and plasma blasts impacting on its chest with superhuman accuracy to bore through its compromised armour and expose it to the stellar flames.

Thaddeus and his Assault marines rocketed into the midst of the Crisis suits. Moving with supernatural speed, the blurred red forms slammed power fists and power swords into the flanks of the enemy war machines, darting away from the plasma or fusion blast that inevitable melted a dent into the hull where they stood a split second before.  
Aramus rushed towards the second Riptide, its twin fusion cannons cycling to power just as he triggered the teleporter in his backpack. A blast powerful enough to gut an imperial Knight flashed into the hull where he stood before, the suit turning around in astonishment as he appeared behind it. The Blade Unrelenting lashed out at it five times every second with inhuman force, slowly wearing the shields of the superheavy suit down as it shot barrage of missiles and melta blasts indiscriminately about itself in order to catch the Captain.

Try as it did to blanket as much area as it could, it faced a foe dozens of times faster. The Captain kept hacking and striking while he lept and rolled around his foe, keeping up the offensive until the coruscanting blue bubble of the shields collapsed.  
The next stab disabled the fusion cannon, and he stepped to the side as the wrecked weapon slammed down where he stood before. Lunging forward, he buried the blade deep inside the chest of the battlesuit, but still the xenos machine was moving, the pilot buried too deep inside it for the blade to reach.

"Solar flare incoming! Maglock your boots and weapons!" Martellus's warning came just in time as a huge blast of raging stellar plasma enveloped the fighters. Heat readouts went into the bright yellow as a million kelvins blazed around Astartes and alien alike, their figures lit by blinding light. Plasma cannons shut down in order to prevent overheat and the Riptide's breached hull glowed with fiery doom as the superheated fire gutted the machine from inside out, sending it spiraling into space in glowing pieces as the solar flare receded.

He turned just in time to see Thaddeus slammed by the weapon arm of Crisis suit as the young Sergeant was swept off the hull by the plasma shockwave. "Thaddeus!" He yelled, firing his bolt pistol at the towering war engine. Astartes were popping out and back into cover as fast as they could, sqeezing off shots before dissapearing as the ornate hull absorbed the deadly xenos firepower. Some had plasma scorching along their limbs from a near miss, but with the turbo lasers prevent the battlesuits from using their jetpacks, their options to flank the Astartes were severely limited. The Assault marines had no such problems.

As the Crisis suits were picked out one by one with concentrated bolter fire, lascannon beams or cut to ribbons by power blades, the lead suit charged Aramus.  
Caught off guard, he barely managed to roll away and maglock his boots once more as the battlesuit kept up blasting at him with its plasma cannon. The touch of such high powered plasma would be death, and he could barely avoid the incandescent blasts as each kept landing nearer and nearer to him as he dodged the bolts with increasing urgency, the uppermost hull layer of the Strike Cruiser melting in his wake.

Thaddeus hit the battlesuit like a crimson meteor, power fist carving a deep trench of annihilated matter down its torso. Another punch sent the wreckage flying out into space just as the last Crisis suit was speared by a lascannon blast. Veteran Astartes moved with the speed of a striking snake to the fusion bomb to disable the maglocks and send it flying into space. Once the bomb was launched off the ship, they sprinted towards the nearest airlocks. They barely managed to get inside as the bomb detonated a kilometer away in space, blanketing the hull in blue fire.

"Damage report!" Aramus demanded, after he checked that none of his brothers lost their lives in the fiery emptiness of space. "Minor hull damage Captain. Nothing to threaten our structural integrity, but we lost a section of turbo laser turrets and multiple sensor banks. We are closing on the cruiser and it is unlikely that they have any other strike teams to deploy."

 **Veralis Secundus**

The Kodiaks barely managed to dock when the Normandy was rocked by a powerful explosion. "This is Joker! The corvette just took out our shields with one hit! Initiating evasive maneuvers so hold onto something!"  
The mass effect fields of the Normandy strained to make the ship weightless in atmosphere as Joker dodged the mass accelerator fire coming from the enemy corvette. It was a flattened looking, sleek craft roughly sixty meters wide and thirty long with large bore barrels mounted up front.

"Commander, the cannons of an Alliance Dreadnought fire a 20 kilogram ferrous slug at 1.3 percent of the speed of light. The enemy corvette is firing ten times that mass at half the speed of light. We barely survived a glancing hit that missed the hull and our kinetic barriers are down." For a moment Shepard wondered if EDI could fear terror, than she realized what the AI has said. That corvette had as much firepower as a Reaper, if not more.

"Shit, where were these slaver scumbags hiding when the Reapers attacked!" She exclaimed as the Normandy rolled and jolted around to evade the incoming enemy fire. She barely got to the CIC when the missile lock alarm sounded. "Incoming missile barrage. Initiating GARDIAN system!" EDI reported as the rapid-fire ultraviolet lasers focused their beams on the incoming warheads, detonating them one by one. Granted the missiles took ten times more punishment than a Javelin torpedo could take, but the sheer fact that they could take them down was enough to make it feel like a victory.  
"Joker can you get behind them and keep it in our sights?"

"Am I the best pilot in and outside of the Alliance or what?" Came the sarcastic reply. "The enemy might be fast but I'm way faster, right EDI?" The Normandy turned 90 degrees with such a speed that it would have ripped it to shreds if not for its mass effect fields and the enemy corvette's flank appeared before the prow. "You can't shake me you bastard!" He exclaimed as the enemy vessel rolled and tried to loose the ship four times its size.

Laser fire flashed towards it but a blue field of energy absorbed the beams. Shepard did not even flinch this time. _Shield systems that can counter energy weapons? After the Reaper-killer railgun on a corvette, no surprise there_ , she thought bitterly. "GARDIAN system caused negligible damage to its shields, Commander." EDI reported. "Damn it Shepard you know how to pick the best fights!" Wrex chuckled.  
"Deflect this!" Joker fired the Thanix cannons. She prayed against that despite everything that happened today, the molten jet of iron, tungsten and uranium would be enough to take this hellish warship down. "Reading fluctuations in enemy gravitic shield. It is not immune." Mordin reported, and Jane grinned savagely. "Joker! Blast that son of a bitch out of the sky!"

"Aye aye Commander!" Jeff 'Joker' Moreau was known for his sometimes inappropriate humor. But he found nothing funny today. These slavers had access to tech that made the Protheans look like stone throwing savages, but they were not invincible. He kept the Normandy on course behind it, no matter what the alien pilot tried. "Fire when ready, EDI!"  
She nodded, hitting the enemy's rear shields again and again. On the third hit, they gave way with a loud bang and the beams scorched a deep furrow into the enemy ship's armour. Still, it did not die. "Firing Javelin torpedoes." The missiles streaked towards the enemy corvette, avoiding the defensive fire of its dozen gatling plasma cannons as EDI guided all four to impact on the rear of the hull.

"Hits confirmed, Commander." The torpedoes exploded, their unstable mass effect fields causing random changes in weight, yet the ochre armour plating still held. Shepard simply stared in astonishment only to cheer a few seconds later as flames burst from the starboard engine.  
"Hull may be mostly impervious to our weaponry, but systems underneath warped by torpedo discharge. Massive systems failure in the fuel containment systems is the most likely explanation!" Mordin said as everybody else on the station just realized that they survived the fight, and the impossibly advanced corvette was now plummeting to the ground.  
"Joker get us the hell out of here before more of those things show up!"


	6. Shock and Awe

**The Veralis system, aboard the SSV Normandy**

"Commander, what did you find?" Just by looking at Shepard's face, Tevos knew that the news she had were bad. Very bad.  
"We have located a backwater human colony and encountered two unknown species of slavers. Probably another lost colony like the Manswell incident." Shepard knew how crazy it all sounded, but continued.  
"They called themselves to the Tau Empire and reacted with lethal force when I tried to put a stop to their imprisonment of human colonists. Their treatment of their captives was brutal and upon confrontation they proclaimed aims to conquer the galaxy. I'll have EDI send the combat footage to the Council. The Tau are the short ones with the tank grade rifles. The avians seemed to be mercenaries or vassals if you ask me. "

Sparatus's mandibles clicked as he watched the recordings. "Commander, is this footage authentic? We have no records of any species matching these profiles, and these Omnitool readings about their weaponry are off the charts."  
"If not for my squad, I would be dead, Councilor. Their weaponry is like nothing I have ever seen. The hover tank survived a shot from a Cain and took the two Kodiaks to finish it off." She looked down, knowing that she would need to report the corvette. "I told you that it was a bad idea!" Valern exclaimed with the self-assurance of validation.  
"That's not all. We encountered... a corvette they had called in as reinforcements. Its main weapons were more powerful than the whole armament of the Destiny Ascension. It had armour that could absorb shots from the Normandy's Thanix cannons and it had some form of gravimetric shielding that deflected laser fire."

That made all the Councilors' eyes bulge. "Another unknown, incredibly powerful alien race in the Attican Traverse that wants to conquer us all. At least now we know better than to dismiss your warnings, Commander." Tevos admitted, eyes wide as she looked over the data from the fight with the corvette. "So Disruptor torpedoes do work against them. At least we are not totally at their mercy."  
"We also haven't encountered any biotics during the skirmish, but that proves nothing." Shepard added before EDI spoke up. "Esteemed Councilors, I have also not detected any Element Zero aboard the alien vessels. This gives us a massive advantage in maneuverability while in the atmosphere." That got their attention.  
"A species that does not use Element Zero? Come back to the Citadel as soon as you can, Commander Shepard. We will want to debrief you in person." Hackett said just as the alarms sounded in the communication chamber. "Commander, you are needed on the bridge right now." Joker's voice sounded more than worried, and Shepard apologized to the Council as she ran towards the bridge.

"This better be damn important..." The sentence died on her lips as she saw the video feed after reaching the CIC. An unmistakable Tau warships was fleeing towards the edge of the system. It looked almost identical to the corvette, except it was around four kilometers long and six kilometers wide. The only thing as terrifying as the Tau super-dreadnought was the thing chasing it.  
It was a crimson, unbelievable blocky warship covered with golden ornamentation, five kilometers long and firing a giant prow mounted laser into the engines of the Tau vessel.  
"Did somebody spike my drinks last night?" Jane muttered in disbelief as the giant mass accelerators on the Tau vessel made a show of firepower that could have decimated half a dozen Reapers in short order. Yet all the rounds seemed to dissipate as they stuck whatever shielding the unknown vessel had. "If they did, they spiked the whole crew's supply." Garrus replied, his mandibles hanging in the Turian version of open mouthed astonishment.

As the brutal red vessel neared its prey, the turret on its prow opened fire. A giant, glowing mass accelerator shell the size of the Normandy slammed through the Tau ship, blasting it into a blue ball of exploding plasma. The unknown vessel turned to port, blasting its four broadside cannons at the wreckage to obliterate any trace of the Tau warship until nothing remained.  
"Okay, we just found our Reaper-killer killer. Can we go home now? Please?" Tali asked with a shrill voice as the alien vessel was fast approaching the planet with a speed that was more than impressive without the use of an FTL drive. "They are not firing on us yet, and the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Still we can always talk to them via a probe so lets get out of here before they get any ideas!" Shepard felt the need to move over and reassure the frightened Quarian but steeled herself.

"Oh no you don't!" Joker said as the unknown warship began to turn towards the Normandy just as Joker engaged the FTL and the ship fled the system. "That was close." Wrex admitted. "Too close." Shepard suddenly laughed, the sheer insanity of what they survived finally reaching through the fear and adrenaline. "I don't know about you guys, but I need a drink before I report to the Council." Liara nodded. "I think we all do. May the Goddess have mercy on us."

 **The Veralis system, aboard the Retribution**

"What in the name of the Omnissiah is that?" Martellus looked at the data-readouts as the weird xenos vessel suddenly left the system. "Captain! Before it ceased all heat and radiation emissions, that vessel just accelerated to fifty times the speed of light! In real space!" The Techmarine's voice was barely able to contain his excitement. "Such inertialess drive technology was only used by the warships of the Dark age of Technology and some of the Necron vessels, and this is clearly not a Necron design."

"Slow down, Martellus. Are you saying that tiny ship is based on lost archaotech?" Cyrus looked at the hololithic display of the sleek, needle like craft with a face full of doubt. "Even if we accept that it is powered by such technology and no sorcery, that is not the shape of any human made craft."  
"I have sensed no presence in the Warp, Sergeant. Whatever that thing did, it was not Warpcraft." Jonah added, the pale scars standing out against his brown skin as his eyes narrowed in concentration. "It slightly resembles the craft of the Eldar, but I would have sensed their psychic spoor."

"We should have shot it out of the sky and let the Techpriests fight over the wreck." Avitus commented with his usual tact, making Martellus glare at him. "If that is truly a ship reactivated from the Dark age, I doubt anything we had could have harmed it." Tarkus retorted, knowing all too well the horrible tales told about that foul, ancient age of godless horror.  
"Can we be sure it is not a Tau design?" Thaddeus asked, only for Cyrus to shake his head. "That is not like any Tau vessel I ever encountered. It could be a new client race but I doubt the Tau would let them keep such technology to themselves without at least adopting it to their own fleet."

"Scans of the planetary launch point indicated that they are not allies of the Tau Empire, Sergeant. Our augur arrays detected signs of weapon discharge in the area where the ship first emerged from the atmosphere, and further readings indicate that a Tau Manta gunship has crashed nearby. Whatever they are, they are not friends of the Tau."  
"I need to meditate upon this. This is... deeply troubling." Aramus bowed his head and headed towards the Chapel. As if Chaos was not bad enough, the horrors of the Dark Age of Technology had to rear their heretical, aeons old head.

 **The Citadel Council chambers, in the Serpent nebula**

Shepard looked upon the assembled Council and felt more tired than ever. She just uncovered a planned attack by an incredibly powerful, unknown alien race and watched their impossibly powerful flagship, as it must have been that, blown apart by another unknown vessel. _It was too much to ask for a few years of peaceful life with Tali after the Reaper War, wasn't it?  
_  
"We will need to prepare, our military can not hope to stand against such onslaught... we will need better torpedoes..." Sparatus was visibly shaken, just as Valern was positively shaking in rage. "I told you all that we should have never done this."  
"Than we would know nothing of this Tau while they are planning to attack us. I'm sure that would have turned out perfectly well." Tevos retorted before turning back to Hackett and Shepard. "Commander, do you have any insight on the intentions of the red alien vessel? Did it show any sign of contact or aggression?"

"It did alter its course towards us before we managed to escape, Councilor, but it did not chose to follow us. That means they either do not consider us a threat, which is very likely since their ship shoots warheads larger than the Normandy... " She trailed off for a second before regaining her composure. "It is possible they did not wish to engage us because we both fought the Tau slavers. I'm not putting much faith in that they did not follow us because they could not. Anything with that sort of firepower could have easily overtaken us."  
"Do you think you could contact them? We could use such an ally if this Tau Empire is going to make war on us." Tevos replied, placing even more weight on Shepard's already burdened shoulders. "We can try, Councilor. I can not promise anything."

 **The captain's quarters, on the Normandy**

Jane sat down on the bed and rested her head in her palms. _Why does this always keep happening? Could the universe not rest until a suicide mission eventually found a way to kill her?_ She looked up as Tali entered the room and sat beside her.  
"The Council really enjoys getting us into trouble, don't they?" The young Quarian put a three fingered hand on her shoulder. "I hope whatever people operate that red dreadnought are friendlier than these Tau."  
"I would not bet on it. You know things do not work out like that. They'll most likely just get annoyed and blast us to kingdom come." Shepard throw herself back onto the bed and pushed her hair out of her face. "If I didn't know that we are going out there tomorrow I would get so wasted..."  
"Meeting the aliens while nursing a hangover is a really bad idea." Tali quipped with a faint smile behind her visor. "You made my people and the Geth put aside our differences. If anyone can do this, it is you."


	7. Ambush

**The Veralis system, aboard the SSV Normandy**

The ship slid out of FTL in the outer edges of the system and began to launch the unmanned probes at the other planets while it sped towards the unnamed colony.  
"Trace elements of Eezo detected on the outer ice world." EDI reported as the probes began their orbit. "The gas giants are suitable for HE-3 mining and drive discharge." It took a few minutes more for the last probe to find the innermost planet. "Interesting. The sensors detect sizable deposits of platinum and palladium with minor sites containing uranium ore."

Shepard look thoughtfully at the readouts. "Could the Tau have come for the minerals? Those could aid their war efforts." She mused as their sensors swept around the second planet. Sure enough, the giant ship was there, slowly orbiting the sphere while launching what appeared to be transport craft at the surface. At least it had not been doing the customary bombardment Reapers unleashed upon the worlds they invaded. "Any theories on their motives?"  
Mordin looked up from his console and shook his scarred head. "Not enough data for a proper analysis. Could be planetary invasion with ground forces, reconnaissance or mineral extraction. It is too early to tell." She looked at Miranda who just shrugged. "All right, keep the stealth systems engaged and take us to the other side of the planet. I want as much distance between us and them as possible."  
Admiral Hackett had quickly attached two units of N7 commandos to the Normandy, and the shuttle bay was quickly emptied of all non-vital equipment to make room for the two additional Kodiak shuttles.

"If they are as good fighters as the avian mercenaries than this is gonna be fun!" Wrex cheerfully interjected and Shepard gave him a glare. "We are not here to provoke them. Remember that corvette that almost shot us out of the sky? They took a dreadnought more than a hundred times larger ship down."  
"Old man here must have been napping." Grunt laughed and Wrex scowled. "I was killing the toughest bastards the galaxy had to offer before you were a glint in Okeer's eyes, youngster!" Liara shook her head and looked at the pair. "Stop it you two. We got enough problems already."  
"All right, we will send down a ground team and try to rescue some of the locals. The enemy seems vulnerable to singularities so I'm taking the Blackstorm. Grunt get the Cain, and I want a Missile Launcher with you Wrex. Send the probes in, EDI." She cracked her fists together and looked around the assembled team. "Lets get some answers." She strode down towards the lift to brief the troops one last time.

 **The Veralis system, aboard the Strike Cruiser Retribution**

"Brother Captain, the augur arrays have detected the archaotech vessel. It is currently orbiting the far side of the planet. Most of our sensorium systems can not detect its trace. No heat or radiation emissions and an incredibly light mass displacement for even a vessel of such small stature. We have also detected a probe launch to Veralis Primus. Particle emissions matching common mapping equipment parameters."  
Aramus nodded to Martellus in thanks. No doubt some strange technosorcery was at work here. "Whatever is upon that ship, they are doing a reconnaissance run on the system. We must be vigilant Brothers, for we know not what trickery they got in store for us, but we must not forget the Tau. They may bring in reinforcements before the Mechanicus fleet arrives."  
Leaving the cruiser in the capable mechadendrites of Martellus, the Captain strode off towards the launch bay lift. He had a Thunderhawk to catch.

 **Veralis Secundus**

The probes sent down into the atmosphere have located a large prison camp with a relatively few alien guards. What cities there were to find were blasted ruins with few life signs and showing the telltale damage of mass accelerator fire. The locals put up a fight, which was something she could admire in the face of such firepower.  
It was as good an opportunity to get on the good side of the locals without heavy losses as they could get and Shepard ordered the insertion. "Remember, stay in cover. Your kinetic barriers will do little good against their weapons and I don't want another Virmire. Stay cool and pick them off by one as we spring the ambush. Move as much as you can since not even cover will stand up a to concentrated plasma barrage for long." Her team and the two N7 squads nodded in unison.

She checked her weapons as the four Kodiaks set the team and the two Commando squads down. They all knew the drill and paced warily through the dense forests that made up more than half of the planet's surface. Were it not a bit too dry and arid, it would have made a perfect candidate for human colonization. The camp appeared lightly guarded, the aliens no doubt having faith in their technology being too much for the locals to handle.  
There was a hover tank like the last one, except that this one sported two of the plasma gatling cannons and what could only be an over sized mass driver cannon on a turret. The alien troopers were housed in prefabricated shelters, with enough space for around two squads. A couple of the avian things were looking around. At first they seemed to be lazily hanging around the camp, but the way they sniffed the air made her unease. _How keen were their senses?_

Just as she was about to figure out how to crack this nut, the turret on the tank began to swivel towards them. "Fire!" She ordered, charging up the Blackstorm and unleashing the harnessed power of a miniature black hole upon the enemy tank as her soldiers sprinted for cover. There was a loud clap of displaced air and eight commandos to her right were instantly vapourised alongside the boulders that they sought to use as cover. The tall stone outcropping beside her disintegrated as if it was made of glass, hypersonic shards pulverizing the trees behind them, the impact sending Shepard down into the dusty earth. She got up just in time to see the singularity drawing in the alien infantry before it impacted the vehicle.

The orange-black globe jinked the tank as it was firing and impacted on its left side. A devastating ball of unleashed energy flattened the nearby troops as the rest of her team concentrated fire on it. A few of the alien bodies did not rise, but enough did that the incoming hail of plasma pulses soon began melting the stone behind which she took cover.  
The tank's second shot went wide, leaving one commando without an arm and another a mangled wreck of shredded meat as they were caught in the edge of the submunition blast. Liara quickly pulled the wounded man to herself with her biotics, applying medical to stem the bloodlow.

The vehicle was still moving, its armour plate warped and its main cannon bent out of shape. The two plasma gatling cannons managed to chew through the ten ton rock she was hiding behind in seconds, making her rush towards the next one with the blaze of blue fire at her heels. "Grunt, hit it now!" A commando behind her was a fraction slower than her and her chest burned to ash as the kinetic barriers gave out within a second.  
Just as she reached the safety of the rock she felt the shockwave and heat of the Cain's fireball pass over her. This time the tank stayed down, blue fires engulfing the blackened wreck. Wrex was happily shooting away at the avians. Tough as they were, they could not take a rocket to the chest and keep fighting. Even the fact that some moved after a rocket hit was phenomenal, for they had no barriers and little beside rags for armour. "We need a biotic barrier now!" She shouted as another commando went down, his head taken clean off by an alien marksman.

Samara and Jack focused all their power into creating a rippling blue barrier around the group as their cover disintegrated at an alarming rate. She sighted down her Saber and made every shot count. She saw one go down with a hole punched under the arm as Garrus found his mark. Another turned just in time to take the brunt of her shot on its over sized shoulder pad, only to receive a second one to the helmet optics as it tried to rise. Ashley and Zaeed were maintaining suppressive fire upon the enemy troopers caught in the open.  
Mordin fired off a cryogenic blast, freezing half a dozen of the enemy into icy statues as the volume of the deadly fire ebbed and then finally ended. She was about to congratulate everybody when an avian creature fell upon her, leaking its dark green ichor and clawing at her armour. She tried to struggle against it, but never before had she encountered such a strong opponent, not even amongst the Krogan. Even with her implants it was like wrestling down an enraged bull.

She only had one chance to survive, or this thing would rip her to shreds before any of the squad got to her. She punched the alien's beady little eye and went for her Hurricane, shooting indiscriminately into the wiry body on top of hers. The supersonic slivers of metal at first ruined the tough, scaly-leathery skin, before grinding through the internal organs and finally erupting in a shower of gore through the back.  
"Commander, it's dead." Miranda was first to the scene and hauled the alien off her as she realized that she had actually overheated the SMG and probably went through a third of its metallic ammunition in one go. She quickly reloaded the thermal clip and nodded her thanks as Tali rushed to her side. "Are you all right, Shepard?"

"I'm fine, thank you, Tali." She got up and looked over her red-stripped onyx armour, trying in vain to get the sticky alien blood off it. Even through her helmet's filters, it stank like the bad end of a week dead varren. "All right lets rescue the civilians before any more of them decide to show up."  
As the group cautiously advanced down towards the camp, she noticed a body move. She raised her gun saw that it was the trooper she shot twice earlier. Even going for the optics, the helmet had somehow managed to save the alien's life, no doubt at the cost of a heavy concussion. "Wrex, Grunt, secure the prisoner."

As the two Krogan pulled the diminutive soldier up, she fumbled with its helmet to find the release catch. She considered that it may be an ammonia breather like a Volus, but in any case the helmet was too fractured for an airtight seal so that did not matter any longer. The helmet slowly pulled off, and Shepard finally had a chance to see her enemy face to face.  
It was quite the disappointed. She expected something intelligent looking like a Salarian, or something incredibly ugly. The alien, if anything, was unimpressive and bland in its features. Beady red eyes looked up at her dazedly from a flat face only interrupted by a vertical gash for a nose and a horizontal one for a mouth. It was almost entirely hairless save for a black topknot, akin to those that were once popular in the more militant cultures of Earth. It was not a face of a monster, it was barely a face at all by human standards. History taught her that people did not need to look like monsters to be one.

"Get him secured and bring him to the Kodiak. I'm sure Bailey will have a field day with our friend." She went up to the enclosure where the colonists were being kept behind a blue force field. She activated her Omni-blade and jammed it into the control mechanism, much to Mordin's dismay. The blue energy field sputtered and died a few seconds later. "Hey, it worked, Doc." She smiled at him as the Salarian just shook his head.  
She looked down at the terrified people. They were clad in ragged, simple clothes that suggested 19th century fashion sense and 20th century technology at best. She was relieved to see that they did not appear to have undergone any significant torture or starvation.  
"I'm Commander Shepard of the Systems Alliance and Sectre of the Citadel Council. I am here to liberate you from you."

Some of them tried to cheer, though they seemed to be in a daze of some sort. It crossed her mind that they may have been drugged to be more malleable to whatever nefarious indoctrination the Tau had in mind. As if summoned by her curiosity, a holographic display of a Tau's upper body came to life. It appeared to be a high ranking official of some sort, its robes looking plain at first glance but displaying a wealth of small ornamentations that must have signified superiority at closer inspection.  
 _"Gue'la, your nation is failing. They can not protect you. Only the Tau Empire can save you from the coming Darkness. All life in the galaxy is born to serve the Greater Good. Join us and you will find happiness in the Tau'va. We are the future and under our rule you will prosper. All those that deny the Greater Good..."_

"Oh for God's sake shut it already." She took her Saber and blasted the holographic projector to a smoking ruin. Some began to mutter thanks in oddly accented English, and a few were getting onto their feet. "Look, we need to get you people out of here. The Tau can send their reinforcements any time and we can't take them on in an extended fire fight."  
"Hey Shepard, I got a trophy!" Grunt chose this moment to come into view with his big toothy smile before holding the severed head of an avian high. While she had to admit, Grunt was a fearsome sight if he got mad, the reaction he provoked from the colonists was still a surprise.

"More Xenos! Emperor save us!" One screamed, and all of them began running away as fast as their drugged legs allowed them, their faces contorted into expressions of sheer terror. She thought about trying to wrestle one down, but decided otherwise. Any accidental casaulity would surely come back to completely ruin any chance of negotiations with the locals.  
"What did I say?" He looked at her in puzzlement. "You did nothing wrong Grunt... I don't know what's wrong with them. Maybe the drugs. This planet gets weirder by the minute. Also you are not keeping that. The Normandy is a warship, not a flying butcher's shop." He was about to argue, but she simply shook her head and walked back to her team. "The colonists were under the influence of some narcotic and they bolted the moment they saw Grunt. They could not have gotten too far..."  
"This is EDI. I'm detecting Tau aircraft en route to your location. I suggest immediate withdrawal." She sighed and flipped off the nearest security sensor. "Just my luck. Get the wounded stable and lets get out of here people!"

 **Virtue's Landing, Platery Capital of Veralis Secundus**

Aramus strode through the rubble of the city and burning wrecks of Tau war craft with pride. With the destruction of their cruiser, half of the Tau army and their aircraft have been killed at a stroke. The rest was scattered and without orbital coordination on the planet, and his brothers hit them where they were the strongest before they could regroup. His blade has ended the life of the enemy commander just an hour before and the thought that the alien dared to defy him still made his fists clench.

The mortals that had not been deported to a conversion camp were on their knees, muttering prayers to the Divine Emperor and giving him the adoration and veneration that one of the Emperor's bloodline was due. Their deliverance was just a side-effect of his efforts to remove the Tau from the world soon to be claimed by the Priesthood of Mars. After the Aurelian Crusades, they needed strong allies, and while a few other organization were as strong an ally as the Mechanicus, none were as close to the Chapter in spirit.

He stopped his march as the few remaining Administratum officials walked up to him before falling on their knees, their robes dirty with mud and stale sweat. "Thank you, oh mighty Lord, thank you! Blessed be the Emperor, mighty ruler of Terra and all Mankind!" Their tiny, frail frames shook with a mixture of terror and gratitude.  
He tilted his helmet down and his deep, metallic voice booming across the ruined square. "I am the Emperor's will made manifest. You will cooperate with my every command. Your first task is to start reorganizing the local Planetary Defense Forces. Go and do your duty in His glorious name!"

The flock of officials fled before him, and a grim smile spread under his helmet. Very few mortals could impress him, and governor Derosa was the only civilian who ever managed it. These shaking weaklings did not even come close.  
"Captain, my Scouts have interrogated a few escaped civilians. They say they were rescued by an unknown xenos kill team lead by a human commander who called herself Shepherd. They have described a weapon being used that ... resembles in effect a miniature black hole."

That got his attention. Martellus had examined the downed Manta and found traces of some sort of very powerful gravitic weaponry that somehow fouled its machinery by bypassing the armour plating.  
"Blood of the Emperor. A radical or even a heretical pirate got her hands on technology from the Dark Age. Pray to the Emperor that she is not a traitor to the Golden Throne in the thrall of the Ruinous powers. We will need to take the Tau out fast. Assemble all squads, we have a war to win."


	8. Interrogation

**The Veralis system, aboard the SSV Normandy**

Shepard left the communications chamber after she had made her report to the Council deep in thought. The transcribed Tau indoctrination speech was a confirmation of their worst fears, but the news that they could be defeated on the ground earned Shepard a round of praise, even from the still sulking Valern.  
"Have our little guest woken up yet?" She asked Miranda, who nodded. "Doctor Mordin took a few blood samples for analysis. We will forward anything he finds to the Council immediately."  
Jane nodded back and turned to Wrex. "Come old friend, lets pay the douchebag a visit." The big Krogan smiled and followed her to the brig.

Stripped of the remnant of its armour down to a yellow undersuit, the alien was even more diminutive than before. Despite its height, it looked up at them from behind the force field with a fierce pride obvious even on its completely alien face. Shepard was immediately reminded of a Batarian about to explain why slavery is an important part of their culture. She never considered herself xenophobic, but Batarians were a people who were hard to like.

"You are now under arrest for the commitment of war crimes in the Attican Traverse, which is Citadel Space. You can start improving your chances in the court by cooperating with the authorities. Start by telling me who you are." She heard Wrex growl behind her. Even amongst the Krogan, he was considered a tall one, and the top of the alien's head barely came up to his chest.  
"I am Shas'la T'au Fio'ur of the Fire Caste. Soldier of the Tau Empire, Gue'la barbarian. Do whatever you want to me, I will never betray the Ethereals." The alien stared ahead with fanaticism that any Cerberus operative could envy, while Shepard felt her blood pressure rise.

"Barbarian? I don't know where you come from, but where I come from civilized people do not put civilians in camps to enforce their ideology on them. In fact it is considered highly illegal and immoral." She tried to put enough sarcasm in her voice to rile up the alien, but apparently her efforts were wasted.  
"Your archaic empire will fall. The Tau will inherit the galaxy and it is our noble task to bring the Greater Good to every being, no matter the cost. You will all follow the will of the Ethereal Caste and will be saved from ignorance. You will get nothing else out of me."

"Slippery bastard managed to overload his weapon when we all thought he was unconscious. I had to threw it off the Kodiak before it blew us all back to Tuchanka." Wrex shook his head and glared at the alien, who was now simply staring impassively forward. "Damn! How did he managed to pull that off?" She asked, guessing that the alien was a he. "Apparently by some vocal command phrase, as his hands were bound." The giant Krogan fixed the small alien with another glare, before turning to her. "I could make him talk, but you wouldn't like the new paint on the walls."  
"Let the Council and C-sec handle that." Feeling the urge to punch the soldier rise in her, she quickly motioned for Wrex to follow her out of the room. "You never let me have fun, Shepard." She looked over her shoulder as they stepped into the lift. "I'll let you blow up the enemy tanks next time, Wrex."

Her next stop was the lab where Mordin was busy making notes and muttering to himself in excitement. "Hello Mordin. Anything to report?" The Salarian looked up at her and nodded enthusiastically. "Ah, Commander. I have the most interesting findings. New species appears to be of omnivore origin with natural adaptations to a hot and arid climate. Lower bone and muscle density point to a low gravity home world. I found evidence that suggested limited genetic engineering and extensive eugenic breeding. Eye structure very interesting. No other known sentient species is capable of detecting such a wide spectrum of light waves. Genetic markers point to short lifespan and faster than human metabolism. Not as fast as Salarian of course."

The professor smiled at the last sentence and gestured her over to the table where the damaged helmet and armour plates lay. "Sensor and communications technology not much different from our own. Lack of any self repair or medigel functions, a curious archaism. Armour alloy extremely advanced with a composite ceramic and plastic materials infused with Iridium and nano crystal alloys. Extensive protection against both kinetic and energy weaponry. As of yet unable to replicate the manufacturing process."  
"So they spent all their funding on developing a method to prevent damage, instead of repairing it?" She nodded and took up a shoulder pad. It was lightweight, comparable to Alliance medium armour in weight. "Medigel technology and its advances were unavailable to Citadel races until human integration. Lack of kinetic barriers in armour correlates with the theory that this new race possesses less advanced mass effect technology. Combat scans of enemy corvette indicate a similar lack of Element Zero."

"What? Those mass accelerators were not using mass effect fields?" She blinked in surprise. The power consumption of such a weapon would be way above any reactor she knew about. "Indicates a sufficiently advanced power source, which correlates with the use of plasma based energy weapons." Mordin nodded and turned back to his instruments. "Finding any such weaknesses as their lack of element Zero technology is going to be of key importance if we are to survive their assault."  
"Thank you, Mordin. We'll head back to the wormhole and make a full report to the Council. If you got any readings you need to take of our prisoner, I would say do it now." The Salarian shook his head. "All readings already taken. Nothing revealed that was not already deduced by genetic analysis except signs of dermal trauma that are conclusive with ritual scarring. Implications point to a tribalistic and militant society. Troubling."

"I'll be in my quarters, Professor." She nodded her farewell to Mordin and went to the lift. After reaching her quarters she went to the sink and washed her face. "Miranda, this is Shepard. You have the ship until we get home." She spoke into the intercom. "Roger that, Commander."  
She went to the locker and took out a green bottle. Say what Jack wants about her Creme de Menthe, she liked the sweet, refreshing drink. She poured herself a glass and sat down to her desk to write her report.

Tali came in a few hours later, looking like she had crawled through the emergency hatches. "Hello Shepard." She waved at the Quarian and looked over her dirty environmental suit. "Hi, what happened Tali?" The other woman shrugged and went to clean her outfit. "Lieutenant Adams had us checking the stealth systems in case something was amiss. He is not quite sure it can fully shield us against the red dreadnought." She nodded and finished her report while Tali cleaned her clothes. "Did you find anything wrong?" She asked, after sitting down onto the bed. "Nothing at all. Maybe they have sensors that can detect the antiproton exhaust of our engines." She nodded as Tali laid down onto the mattress beside her. "Lets get a few hours rest before we are back home."

 **The Veralis system, aboard the Retribution**

Captain Aramus was waiting for Martellus to return. He may have had the immortal lifespan of an Astartes, but some things do not change and he still hated waiting with a fiery passion just as much as he did in his mortal days. He recited a few litanies of control and felt his enhanced neural system respond, his twin heartbeat slowing in response to the indoctrinated stimuli. After long dreary hours of re-examining combat footage provided by the neural interface of his helmet, the vox chime finally sounded.  
"Brother Captain, I have completed the preliminary analysis on the Tau battle debris from the conflict site with the unknown forces. I will be ready to present my findings in six minutes." He quickly summoned all the sergeants to the Strategium as Martellus's Thunderhawk delivered him to the Strike Cruiser.

"Brothers, I am at a loss to explain some of my findings. Wreckage of a Tau Hammerhead indicates hits by a powerful Grav weapon of some sort, but it was destroyed by a rail cannon of unknown origin. The infantry was taken out by some sort of primitive mass driver that failed to penetrate the aliens' carapace armour but was used to perforate their joints to lethal effect. Retrieved ammunition is reminiscent of Eldar shuriken technology, but considerable less sharp. Trace remains of human corpses hit by Tau rail weaponry could be detected and there was blood spilled on the sand, but they took their dead with them. Whoever these individuals are, they seem to value rate of fire over stopping power. A few curious Grav weapon marks were found on the Fire warriors' corpses, but these appear less potent than our own hand held Grav guns. The rest of the evidence indicates the standard infantry toolkit of grenades and short blades."

"Can we match them for firepower, Techmarine?" Avitus asked, always straight to the core of the matter. "I believe so, Sergeant. While their heavy weaponry is certainly impressive, their small arms seem not much more dangerous than the basic autogun."  
"Than how come they managed to take the Tau by surprise?" Asked Cyrus, pointing out the obvious for Avitus. "I found a few odd objects near the edge of the forest. I believe they set up an ambush." The Techmarine replied, holding up a strange cylinder about the size of a small flare. "This appears to be a depleted heat dispersion unit of some sort. Perhaps some of the ambushers suffered a weapon malfunction and had to replace parts of its weapon during the battle."

"The Tau presence is becoming ever weaker as we eliminate their surviving outposts one by one, Captain. Soon the will pose no threat to our operations on Veralis Secundus." Tarkus reported with his usual stoicism. "Tactical analysis of combat data indicates they have no more than two Manta gunships, a dozen fighters and grav tanks remaining with around the same number of battlesuits. Infantry estimates range between three or four hundred."  
"Captain, we should determine the purpose of these mysterious creatures. If they are planning an invasion we need to know as soon as possible." Cyrus interjected. Thaddeus put his armoured fist against his chestplate. "My assault marines could quickly close in with them before they can bring their heavy weapons to deploy."  
Aramus nodded and pondered the situation for a second. "Sergeant Cyrus and Stormraven Claw Beta will provide backup for you. When the next opportunity arises, find out who these interlopers are and whenever they carry any Imperial authority. We can not rule out a Rogue Trader or even a radical Inquisitor at this point, but we also can not let them distract us while the Tau are still capable of taking our brothers' lives."

 **The Citadel, Serpent nebula**

The meeting with the Council was going as badly as Shepard knew it would. The Tau soldier, now given a nice cozy cell at C-Sec, was present as a hologram and interviewed by the Councilors.  
Shas'la Fio'ur gave his name and rank to the Council and then kept staring ahead with admirable discipline. Ashley and Mordin accompanied her to the hearing as the second Spectre and the one of the most experienced xenobiologist in the galaxy.  
"Why did your Empire decide to make war on a human colony in the Attican Traverse?" Asked Tevos with a patience that Shepard had to admire.

"The Gue'la have been making punitive raids on our territory for centuries of Tau'cyr ever since we took some of their colonies. Only a few Kai'rotaa ago they set the space itself on fire to wall our Empire in with our more recent conquests. We have to spread the Greater Good no matter what the circumstances."  
"We did not set their space in fire. If we had the ability we would have used it to keep the Reapers away from Earth." Hackett explained before anybody could accuse Humanity of hoarding some form of space-blazing super weapon, as infeasible as that sounded.  
"You obviously could not have done so unless their centuries are extremely short." Valern commented. " Our year is around three hundred of your Earth-days." The prisoner informed the Council with grim determination. "We have resisted the attacks of the Gue'la for almost as long as their empire made contact with us."

"The Systems Alliance could not have been that human authority. My people and the humans fought in the First Contact war twenty nine years ago. That was the Humanity's first military action against a non-human species. So are you telling us to believe humans have been warring in the galaxy for centuries?" Sparatus made his beloved air quotes and shook his head, certain that the Tau was lying.  
"He is right. Humanity could not have done this. Does your Greater Good allow co-existence of other states and the Empire as equals?" Tevos asked the question which all was hanging upon.

"No. All must be brought under the wisdom of the Ethereal Caste for the Greater Good. For serving the Ethereals in the role they see fit you will be protected from barbarians like the Gue'la and the Be'gel. To serve the Greater Good is the greatest gift one can be given." The alien warrior stared ahead with steely conviction.  
Shepard had to admire him, the alien had guts. Too bad the fanatical devotion to their ruling caste made him so unbending, beside the insane remarks about centuries of human warfare.

"What is the Be'gel? Another unidentified race or just a different name for an existing one? Could be Vorcha." Valern ventured, the Salarian's scientific curiosity awakened and the frown he had worn for the last week gone entirely.  
"They are an utterly insane and barbaric race of green skinned monster. There is no end to them in the galaxy and they are even more unreasonable than the Gue'la, who call them orks."

"Orcs?" Ashley looked around with an incredulous look on her face. "Do they fight hobbits and elves?" She could not help but smile as Ashley blurted that question out. She recalled reading the Lord of the Rings in literature class and had some vague idea about what an orc was. She preferred crime or adventure stories herself to fantasy, but it was either the Lord of the Rings or Twilight, so she had no choice.  
"Spectre Williams, if you have any data on this orc race, do share with us." Sparatus asked, not knowing what he was getting into.

"They are a mythical race of fantasy monsters, Councilor. Like in Galaxy of Fantasy. Malformed human like monsters who like killing and pillaging. They are either grey or green skinned depending on the setting."  
"So we are to believe you will protect us from fictional monsters? Surely we need this Ethereal Caste to fight off invasions of orcs." Sparatus was not sure if they were being mocked or the alien was just not wholly sane.  
"Doubt all you want, but if the humans do not kill you, then the Be'gel will. Their scrap ships will cloud the skies of your worlds and they will leave nothing but death behind." With an indignant glare, the Tau warrior simply turned his back to the holocamera.  
"I know the Reapers were once considered a myth... but orcs?" Hackett just looked ahead of himself, shocked. "It must be misdirection. Shepard, do you think he referred to the red dreadnought?"

She considered it for a moment and shook her head. "That ship looks far too ornate for anyone to be considered scrap. It appeared to be in good condition when we last scanned it and so far it has been operating alone."  
"We have prepared a first contact probe with the newest technology to help you in contacting them, Captain." Tevos looked at Shepard and then at the hologram interface where the alien soldier stood a few minutes before. "We need all the allies we can get if this new Empire attacks. We are all counting on you, Commander." She just nodded in resignation. W _ho else to handle the giant death ship and whatever crewed it if not her?_

 **The Veralis system, aboard the Retribution**

Aramus walked out of the Astropath's chamber after reporting the situation to the Mechanicus fleet en route. They were still days away at best, a month at the worst and the Magos in command was adamant that the archaotech had to preserved at all costs. The risk of damage to the ancient machinery was too high to try to capture it with only one Strike Cruiser before the Techpriests could analyze the situation.

The Astartes warlord was not happy with the situation, but he had a mangled shell of a Company and he needed to avoid unnecessary casualties as much as the Chapter needed the favour of the Mechanicus. For now he had more pressing problems, there were still xenos to kill.


	9. Orks and Angels

**The Warp**

Mister Nailbrain was not having a good day, his engineering console flashing with way too many warning lights before him. The damn bugs have been stirring up trouble ever since they went into the Warp and something had broken in the insides of the Judgment of Carrion. "Oi, Mork save us, dat must be the plasma couplin'!" He frantically smashed the buttons and twirled the knobs in the vain hope that he could prevent an overload in the plasma reactor. "Kaptin, we are in big trouble! I'm tryin' to reverse the polaroartah but it ain't workin'!"

Kaptin Bludflagg was having the time of his life. He unloaded his double barreled kustom shoota into a horde of gaunts and grinned as they were turned to so much bloody paste by the hail of explosive bullets the size of human fists. Just as a Genestealer leapt at him, he stabbed his power cutlass right through the chest of the Tyranid and felt its hot, toxic blood spray on his face. "Show these scurwy bugs who's da boss!"  
"Da orkz!" Came the roar from his boys as the greenskins charged into the midst of their foes, blissfully cleaving and blasting through the swarm even as bio acid ate through their skin and flesh.  
"WAAAGH!" Brikkfist was a whirlwind of death, a power axe in one hand and chainaxe in the other as he hewed through the Tyranid warriors with reckless abandon, smashing heads and gutting chests with every blow he rained on the bioforms.

"Brainybug!" Yelled one of the Weirdboyz as a Zoanthrope floated out of the tunnel towards the ork lines, its enlarged cranium swelling with the power of the Warp as it coursed through the ship. "On it boss!" Suddenly Spookums was there, as if appearing from thin air. He blasted a Ravener back with his shotgun and threw a dozen grenades at the floating monstrosity. Bludflagg could never figure it out where he kept so many grenades, but the effect was always the same. The Tyranid synapse creature was blown to bloody chunks and a green psychic shockwave stunned the nearby bugs just as Nailbrain spoke to the radio again.  
"Boss, this whole hulk is gonna blow! The bugs have chewed through da plasma kablin! We need to get to da emergency Krooza now!" The Kaptin was less than pleased and showed his sour mood by stomping the skull of a wounded Ravener until the satisfying crunch calmed him down a little. "By the flamin' ass of Gork its me home we is talkin' aboot!"

"Kaptin we must hurry! The dials are all in da red, it will blow up fasta! I'ze gonna get Daisy, meet me in da hangar bay!" There was a loud cracking as the Mekboy dropped the radio and alarms began to blare on the Hulk. Steam vented from great ducts and the groaning of bending metal filled the air. "All right ya gitz! Grab all da loot you can and get to the cargo bay! Last one to the Krooza is a runty squig!"  
The Judgment of Carrion was already burning as thousands of boyz ran up to the mostly finished Krooza filling the huge, extended hangar that must have belonged to the prow of a battle barge at some point.  
Carrying ammunition, armour, chests full of loot on foot, clinging to the top of buggies or the back of deff dreads and followed by herds of gretchin and squigs, the ork horde boarded the cruiser as fast as they could.

Bludflagg found Mr Naibrain tying down Daisy against the bridge corridor with more than the necessary amount of steel cabling and grabbed the Mekboy by the scruff of his neck. "Come on and get this bucket of bolts outta here!" He stormed to the bridge with Nailbrain in tow while Brikkfist and Spookums hauled his favourite hoard behind his throne. He watches his boys to make sure every one of them got safely inside the ship. Not that he really cared about the lazy gits, but he had a gut feeling they would need all the troops they could get. Plus they were carrying his loot, which he most certainly cared about. He counted down the seconds as the last, particularly greedy ork dragged two crates full of gold inside through a hatch. "Now!"

The engines of the krooza lit up with a yellow-green glow as it blasted from the prow, incinerating the few grots that failed to get on board in time as it rocketed from the burning space hulk. The Judgment of Carrion blazed behind them in the unholy embrace of the Warp, great flares of blue fire venting from its sides as the Warp claimed what belong to it.  
Bludflagg cursed as the newly launched ship began shaking. Everybody knew that a Krooza was unlucky if you did not smash a bottle of squig beer against the hull. "Mista Nailbrain, what the zog was that?" The Mekboy was frantically typing on his keyboard. "Kaptin, its some kind of warp anomaly! Its like a wibby wobbly, swoopy loopy... fing! Hold on boss!"

With that, the Kroozer plunged into a circular ring of purple Warpfire. There was a sense of dislocation and a flash of images. Some kind of segmented cone like space station in a purple nebula for a moment, than an asteroid base crowded by small ships the like of which he never saw before. When the ship finally exited the Warp into the starry void near a star system, it was still in one piece.  
"Ugh, me 'ead." Spookums was rubbing his temple where he accidentally landed head first against the Kaptin's loot chest.

"Kaptin we escaped and all systems are in da green!" Nailbrain reported while Bludflagg mused. "Green is best! All right boyz! We got all da dakka we need an' now we only need a name for our new Krooza!" Brikkfist looked up at his Kaptin and grinned. "Look like a Gitstompa to me, boss."  
"I like dat, Gitstompa it is! Now lets see what's over dere in dat system an' get ready fer lootin!" The newly christened Gitstompa's engines flared with a dirty orange light as it began to accelerate towards Sahrabik system as the chanting of the boys began.

 _'Ere we go, 'ere we go, 'ere we go, 'ere we go, 'kross da kosmos._  
 _'Ere we go, 'ere we go, 'ere we go, 'ere we go, throo infinitee._  
 _'Ere we go, 'ere we go, 'ere we go. Don't know where till we get dere._

 **The Veralis system, aboard the SSV Normandy**

The Normandy slipped into the system to find the unknown dreadnought where they left it, maintaining its orbit above the largest city. Initial scans showed no sign that they were commencing an attack on any of the colonists and the locals have began moving into the cities again.  
"First we are going to land the Kodiaks near one of the more isolated villages and try to get something out of the locals. Ash, Miranda, Kasumi and Zaeed, you will come with me. The rest secure the landing area and make sure the shuttle is still there when we come back. The locals may be from the First Contact war era so I don't want to rile them too much up. Xenophobes or not, they may have useful intel." The team nodded their acknowledgments and went to board the Kodiaks.

They landed a good ten minutes walk away from the settlement. Orbital scans showed a walled town surrounded by plantation fields with an estimated population between one hundred and one hundred and fifty. The walls were an ugly, blocky sort of concrete that has not been seen on Earth for almost two hundred years and crowned by an inordinate amount of razor wire. At points turrets stood with long barreled machine gun barrels poking out of thin firing slits.  
"Charming little place." Zaeed said dryly as they walked the gravel road towards the town. Shepard put her hands up above her hand as some of the turreted guns turned their way. She was half expecting to have to dash for cover, but no hail of bullets came. "I don't think even you could sneak past all that razor wire." Ash smiled at Kasumi who grinned back at her. "I would not be so sure of that." Miranda gave them a look. "Try to act professional."

As they approached within twenty meters of the gate, an actual heavy metal gate, she made out the shapes of soldiers running atop the wall with what looked like automatic rifles.  
"I am Commander Shepard and these are my officers. I come in peace from Earth to ask you a few questions." As if she had spoken a magical spell, the soldiers' activities grew ever more frantic and the gates began to open. "That went easier than I expected." Zaeed commented as they walked into the town.

A line of ten soldiers on each sides saluted them with admirable precision. They all wore a hard, bulky chestplate and helmet but otherwise only had drab military uniforms. The rifles in their hands looked bulky and serviceable, if primitive, and their belts held a long knife, a ridiculously archaic radio and grenades. _Where did they get their equipment from, the 20th century?_ she thought.  
The houses were low, blocky things with slit windows that were just as ugly and uniform as the wall. The people were simple outfits that seemed ridiculously outdated even beyond their military gear. Most wore shirts and trousers, but some of the women wore long skirts. There was no sign of Omnitools or even electronic devices beside the odd portable radio and flashlight. They all stared at her team, with some men looking at Miranda with open curiosity.

There was some commotion at the biggest building in the middle of the settlement. It looked like a three storey tall bunker with a double barreled autocannon turret on top. Most likely a military command, she noted as a wizened old man was being hurried her way by soldiers. He was wearing a long, worn grey robe and as he came closer, she saw that his eyes had been covered by a crude cybernetic lense harness attached to his temples.

"Greetings esteemed visitors from the Homeworld!" The frail elder bowed as low as he could and tinkered with his cybernetic. A pair of spectacles went over his eyes, the lenses giving the illusion that he had comically huge eyes. "I am Overseer Kazton and I greet you on behalf of the people of Kathfield. How may we be of assistance?" The nervous man bowed again so deep that she thought his back would break.

"We just wish to ask you a few questions to help us make Earth more secure." She had a feeling that the locals thought very highly of the planet so she mentioned it just to make sure they were on the same page.  
"Anything you wish, Lady. Our folks are simple and they are proper in His worship. You have our full cooperation. I will vacate my quarters for your highness and your mistress while accommodations will be made for your assassin and bodyguard. A feast will be prepared for you, honoured Commander. " He bowed again and she realized that they were not only reverent of Earth, but afraid of what authority she would carry. She quickly held up a finger before the outraged Miranda could start an argument about the remark. Kasumi seemed more than pleased by being called an assassin on the other hand. "There is no need for that. We are in a hurry."

He nodded again, looking as if a huge burden was lifted of his shoulders. "Whatever we can help, Lady." She nodded and brought up her Omnitool, which produced a series of awed gasps from the locals. Images of the Tau, their vehicles and spaceships scrolled through the yellow holographic scene. "These aliens call themselves the Tau Empire. I have been fighting them to save some of your fellow colonists and I need to hear anything you know about them."  
"Yes, these are the Warp cursed xenos that attacked our people. Vile abominations, we know nothing about them nor would want to know. Damnation lies that way." The old man managed to sound surprisingly hateful and Shepard inwardly cringed, her suspicion of extreme xenophobia confirmed.

She cycled her Omnitool to the image of the red dreadnought. "Do you recognize this ship?"  
The overseer almost fell to his knees, a look of awe and relief mixing on his wrinkled face, big blue eyes staring at her. "Blessed be His name! The Angels have come! The rumors are true, we are saved!" Forgetting himself for a moment, he simply hugged Shepard with tears rolling down his cheeks. Up close he smelled like old books and spilt ink mixed with potent and pungent incense.  
"Angels?" Asked Ashley with a bewildered look. "Yes, I recognize the ship. The Defenders of Humanity. I never thought they would come." That was good news. _One does not gain the Defenders of Humanity title for being on bad terms with humans_ , she mused. "I saved Earth from a Reaper... alien robot attack a few months ago. We could desperately use their help against these new aliens. Do you know how I can reach them?"

"Terra was attacked...?" The old man almost fainted, before looking at her with the hero worship she had gotten used to back on Earth. "You saved the Homeworld from xenos? Then the Angels will no doubt know already of your heroism and will rally to your call." The old man was so traumatized that for a moment, Shepard thought she would have to call a medic for him.  
"Thank you for your help, Overseer. We'll be on our way to contact them as soon as we can. We will send someone from Earth, your people could use a few tools." The old clerk nodded his thanks. "Emperor help you, Commander."

After walking back to the Kodiak, Ashley looked at her as they boarded the shuttle. "Angels, Shepard? Super powered aliens, then orcs, now angels?" She knew Williams was the religious sort, so she tried to be as gentle as she could as the Kodiaks flew towards the Normandy.  
"It is possible that these aliens took on a mythical identity to keep the locals at arms length or inspire awe. They may not be social creatures, despite their apparent willingness to help people." She mused and Kasumi turned to them with a grin on her hooded face.

"Aliens masquerading as mythical beings from the dawn of time? Reminds me of some of the horribly stupid 21st century television programs I came across once." Zaeed grinned at them. "If they're really angels, I'll eat Gardner's cooking without another complaint for as long as I live." Shepard chuckled despite herself. "I'll hold you to that." She activated her radio. "Send the communications probe to the Dreadnought. Our Intel says they are unlikely to be hostile towards us."

 **The Veralis system, aboard the Retribution**

The alarms began to blare as the alien probe sped towards the Retribution. Void shields raised and weapons were powered up as Aramus hurried to the bridge. "Captain, enemy object incoming." Martellus reported as the probe stopped just a few dozen kilometers next to the Cruiser, its point defense turbo lasers ready to open fire at a moment's notice. "It is emitting some form of radio signal and a... targeting laser. Fluctuations in beam. It looks like a binary code, Captain."  
"Communication by laser beam? At least it is not a Vortex warhead. Keep the turbo lasers on target." Aramus scowled, hoping it was not some elaborate xenos trick. "Keep the voids up whatever happens." The Techmarine nodded. "Of course, Captain." The probe flashed a few lights, and displayed a set of greetings in different languages. One appeared to be Low Gothic.

 _We greet you in the name of the Earth Systems Alliance and the Citadel and would wish to initiate first contact protocols. We await your reply at your discretion._ The hundred meter tall holographic letters told. "Earth Systems Alliance? What in the Emperor's name could that be? A cartel of Rogue Traders?" Aramus glared at the letters. He would have even preferred the tall capital I of the Inquisition to this nonsense.  
"There is no reference in our data-librams about such an organization, Captain." Martellus reported as the probe flashed and another image appeared, this a detailed blue topographic map of Veralis Secundus with a blinking white dot. _In case transmitted communications prove insufficient, Commander Shepard will be available for meeting at these coordinates,_ the new latters flashed. The coordinates were chosen to be near one of the Astartes deployment zones. "Signal Thaddeus and prepare Thunderhawk Talon Alpha. We will meet this unknown adversary there."

 **The surface of Veralis Secundus**

The team moved through the dense equatorial jungle with some difficulty. Despite the virility of the local flora, they passed signs of conflict every few minutes. Sometimes a splinter of burned armour, in others an area where some munition had exploded and blasted the trees to charred husks. "What is it Miranda, did you figure you need armour now?" Kasumi teased the genetically altered woman, who glared at her. "If we run into trouble, armour might be useful, oh fabled assassin." She retorted.  
Just as the trees began to clear, Shepard heard Grunt curse and dodge as a plasma shot flew over his head. The tree behind him was incinerated instantly, blazing with an unearthly blue fire before falling sideways. "Take cover! Tali give me a visual with your drone!" Everybody scrambled for cover and began returning fire as they caught glimpses of the ochre shapes moving forward at the edge of the jungle.

Shepard took cover behind one of the ever present outcroppings of ancient volcanic rock that seemed to be in no short supply all over the planet. She cursed as the image from Tali's drone transmitted to her Omnitool. There were over a hundred of the Tau infantry closing on their position, as well as what appeared to be a four meters tall battle mech with a cylinder shaped cannon on one arm and a round shield on the other. The next second the mech raised its gun arm and fired. There was a blinding flash and she felt herself thrown off her feet as the rock before her was consumed in a blue fireball, her armour's alarms beeping in response to the heatwave that rolled over its surface after her kinetic and biotic barriers collapsed instantly.

The mech landed near her with a burst of flame from its jetpack, aiming its plasma cannon at her chest while mass accelerator fire pinged off its armour as if it was a light rain. "Shepard!" Tali screamed just as the roar of additional jetpacks filled the air. On instinct she looked behind the mech, her eyes wide with awe. _The angels have arrived on wings of fire._


	10. Xenos and Heretics

**The surface of Veralis Secundus**

 _Commander Shepard_

Haloed by orange fire, the crimson warriors impacted the enemy line with the force of a meteor storm. Moving like bloody blurs, they fired blocky handguns and hewed through the enemy infantry with... _swords, axes, claws_? Tau soldiers simply exploded when hit, as if they swallowed a grenade, raining blue viscera over their compatriots or simply evaporated by plasma blasts to leave charred limbs behind. Those hit in melee just came apart by the dozens. The sheer inhuman speed of these new arrivals froze her in shock. She never believed anything could move so damned fast.

The mech had forgotten her and turned to face the new foe. Usually she would have felt insulted at being ignored, but she could barely believe the slaughter before her eyes. The robotic construct was raising its gun arm, but it was too late.  
A figure slammed into it with enough force to make it stagger backwards, its cannon a mangled ruin in the next moment as the crimson warrior slashed forward with a weapon faster than a striking snake. It was a giant almost as tall as the mech itself, and she instinctively scrambled away from them, primal dread twisting her stomach. The report of their guns was impossibly loud, sounding like an artillery barrage landing right beside her ear.

Blow after blow rained down upon the mech, some intercepted by its shield and its energy field, but others tearing great rents in the armour as if it was wet paper. Catching glimpses of her savior, she could make out a huge, fiery bladed axe and what appeared to be an oversized gauntlet shining with blue light. The next moment it was over. The axe slapped the shield away and the fist was suddenly punched through the mech's chest, its matter disappearing against the gauntlet's glowing power.

 _Sergeant Thaddeus_

Pulling his power fist from the battlesuit, he turned and glared down at the human woman in scorched crimson armour lying a few meters from her. Glowing red augmetic eyes met the red lenses of his helm and he saw fear. His brothers have slaughtered the fleeing xenos and were now covering the ragtag band with their weapons.  
They seemed mostly human, with an odd mix of mutants and xenos thrown in, just like a radical Inquisitor's retinue straight out of a cautionary tale told to young Interrogators. There were two blue mutant females with tentacle like protrusions instead of hair, and another alien or mutant with her limbs deformed.  
Another alien looked like a more civilized version of the Kroot, tall and lean. Two of them reminded him of giant turtles, bringing back memories from his childhood in the hives of Meridian.  
There was an old Terran legend about mutant turtles fighting criminal gangs and other mutants in the slums of some city of Old Earth to save it. He idly wondered if the red-plated one was called Raphael.

What a baffling lot, these were. Their gear was like nothing he had ever seen, nor were the aliens were of any species known to him. "Identify yourself in the name of the Emperor." His speech came out with a deep and metallic resonance, and the woman flinched. She was carrying a gun that looked slightly like a smaller version of a Stalker pattern Boltgun, her armour a mix between Eldar and Tau workmanship. While she was tall for a human, she barely came up to his chest as she stood up.

 _Commander Shepard_

Up close, the giant was even more terrifying. It was humanoid in shape with a bulky jetpack and deep blood red for the most part. There was a golden two headed eagle on its chest, and the image of a stylished black bird on one shoulderpad, decorated with a ruby drop of blood, while the other pauldron sported four black arrows radiating outwards in a cross shape.  
Its powerful, thick limbs bore golden engravings upon black inlays. In its left hand was a battle axe that she would have struggled to lift, and on the right a gauntlet the size of her chest. Its beaked, bone coloured helmet was like those of ancient knights, and two lenses shone with red light as they bored into her eyes.

"Identify yourself in the name of the Emperor." Its voice was deep as thunder and she cringed inwardly. The rest of them was covering her team with the guns that made a mockery of the Tau's armour. _Can't be more dangerous than the Reapers, can it be?_ She thought sourly and hauled herself up. She was barely up to the middle of its chest and wondered what it was. It spoke English, but most aliens could speak it. _Perhaps it was a mech?_ She gathered all her courage and looked it in the eye.

"I'm Commander Jane Shepard of the SSV Normandy. I represent the Systems Alliance of Earth and the Citadel Council. I thank you for saving my team... saving me. We tried to initiate first contact with your species through a probe and I am honoured that you accepted our invitation for a rendezvous. The locals have told me you already are somewhat familiar with humans. The Systems Alliance represents our homeworld of Earth, and we are part of the multi-species coalition of the Citadel."

Some of the giants looked at each other with a slow, measured pace utterly at odds with their frenzied speed in combat. It looked like astonishment or confusion, but she was wary not to apply human body language to what were most likely alien robots. When the leader, as she guessed from its bone coloured helmet and slightly more ornate armour, did not reply, she took off her helmet and continued.

"Only a few months ago Earth was invaded by the Reapers. I managed to unite most of the species and liberate our home, but the casualties were enormous. This Tau Empire we just met sounds hell bent on conquering everything and we would, with the utmost respect, wish to count your people as allies in this fight. We are willing to offer compensation for your efforts on our behalf."

 _Sergeant Thaddeus_

He was not sure whenever the woman in front of him was insane or outright lying. Her body language did not suggest deception, but some humans could control their stance well enough to hide their lies even from Space Marines.  
She took off her helmet, revealing a face that, to mortals, must have been remarkably attractive. She had a bob cut not totally unlike that of the Battle Sisters, expect it was a vivid shade of red instead of pure white. Apart from her eyes, she seemed wholly natural on the surface, yet the optics of his helmet picked up traces of subtle subdermal cybernetics.

She kept on with her nonsense about an invasion of Reapers and alien coalitions to save Earth. His brothers looked to each other. _Was this a mockery, an insult to their honour? Was the woman simply mad, her mind snapped by some past trauma or the baleful energies of forbidden technosorcery? Should they kill them, or detain them for the Techpriests to pick apart?_ He took a step closer and inhaled through the filters of his helmet.  
Her scent was human enough that he could tell she was telling the truth, or what she believed to be the truth. She also had a faint smell of hygenic products, Tau plasma residue and a foul, underlying reek of the alien that one could only get from living in too close proximity to xenos for far too long. The autosenses in his helmet relayed the same findings to his brain. He quickly switched back the air to recycling and voxed his squad. "She is telling her truth. Stand down and let me talk to her and see if she is deceived or insane." Xenos collaborator or not, the mystery here was more important than punishment. For the moment.

 _Commander Shepard_

"Commander Shepard, are you expecting me to believe that you represent this government of Holy Terra and you have personally saved it with a coalition of xenos? Do you realize how insane that sounds?"  
She looked at the giant before her. This was the last thing she expected. She expected hostility, indifference, demands of riches, but not disbelief. She drew herself to he full height and looked the squad leader in the eyes, or rather the lenses.

"I am the first human Spectre. I found the threat of the Reapers. I stopped the Collectors from abducting human colonies. I stopped the Reapers and their million years long cycle of exterminating the advanced species of the galaxy. Kill me if you must but do not call me a liar!" She could barely believe she had used that tone with a two and half meters tall killing machine, but warriors often respected strength, so she kept on going without hesitation. "I can show you our camera logs and if that is not enough, I can bring you to Earth and let you see the rubble from the invasion!"

"No invasion set foot upon the sacred soil of Holy Terra for nine thousand years. What you are saying is an impossibility. There is no Systems Alliance or Citadel authority over Earth. It is the Throneworld of the Holy Imperium and the seat of the Immortal God Emperor of Mankind. Thus it had been for more than ten millenia since the thirtieth millenium and thus it shall be until the end of times."  
She simply stared at the giant. "Did you just say that it is the four hundredth century? I am sure it is the twenty second." She heard Kasumi mutter "Is this a sequel to We meet Again, Doctor Fear?" and hoped that the giants could not tap into their comm network. "What are you, don't tell me you are really an angel."

 _Sergeant Thaddeus_

"Did she say she is from the third millenium? Ships can be lost in the Immaterium for centuries, but almost thirty nine thousand years is a new record." Brother Metheius commented in disbelief. "That would predate the Dark age of Technology." He replied and turned to the woman.  
"I am Sergeant Thaddeus of the Blood Ravens Fourth Company. We are Adeptus Astartes, Imperial Space Marines. The Emperor's chosen Angels of Death. Your vessel must have been lost in the Warp for the greater part of recorded history." He detached his helmet's systems with a mental command and holstered his power axe. He took his helm into his hand and looked the woman in the eye. "We are the Imperium's finest, not xenos. Never imply that notion ever again, Commander, if you value your life."

 _Commander Shepard_

She could barely believe it. It was a human being, a youthful blond man with what she had to admit was a quite handsome face. Yet he was faster and larger than any man had any right to be.  
"What is the Warp? We came to this place of the Attican Traverse through a wormhole."  
The look of astonishment on his face was so comical that she almost smiled. "It is the Immaterium, the Sea of Souls. The psychic dimension that ships sail between the stars. In the ancient times, I believe it was called Hell."

 _First orcs, now angels with Hell-powered FTL. Just peachy, when will Scooby Doo appear to chase ghosts?_ She thought with resignation. "We use Relays and Mass effect drives to go faster than light. So we could not be lost in Hell for fucking thirty nine thousand years. There must be some error, Sergeant!"  
"Not necessarily, Commander. Wormhole travel not at all understood. The only logical conclusions are that it leads through time or dimensions. Different technology and history all neatly explained." Mordin chimed in. "Thank you, Professor."

"Alien sympathizers from another reality or time where xenos want to save Earth instead of enslaving, eating and eradicating Mankind. Never in my eighty years have I heard anything so unrealistic." _Did he just say eighty? He definately did._ She looked at him and smiled her best diplomatic smile. "I wish I looked that good at your age. Most aliens are all right, where I come from. If the Tau here are any indication of the local aliens, I can understand your reluctance to trust us."

"I can not make a decision in this case. You need to follow me and talk to Captain Aramus, the leader of the Fourth Company. I will update him through the vox on our way there." She nodded, there was not much else to do than to accept. "I will tell my ship of our detour." She began jogging after the youthful, handsome ancient that could have been her grandfather.

 _"From Ancient Terra the Emperor commands His Proud Sons."_  
 _"From revered Blood-stock these Warriors are made His Proud Sons."_  
 _"No fear they shall know, Adeptus Astartes, His Proud Sons."_  
 _"Humanity's foes they defend against all, His Proud Sons."_

 _"Warrior Elite, Unbreakable spirit, Astartes!"_  
 _"Supreme Defenders, Unchallenged in Battle, Astartes!"_  
 _"Warrior Elite, Unbreakable spirit, Astartes!"_  
 _"Courage and honour, Emperor and Primarch, Astartes!"_

 _"Proud Astartes! Warrior Merit!"_  
 _"Proud Astartes! Unbreakable spirit!"_  
 _"Proud Astartes! Warrior Merit!"_  
 _"Proud Astartes! Proud Astartes!"_

She could hear the chanting even above the din of battle as they approached the outskirts of the ruined city. A Tau Corvette that so nearly brought down the Normandy flew over them, chasing what appeared to be a heavy gunship of singularly anti-aerodynamic design, basically a winged box, even besting the Kodiak in that department. Its prow guns blazed but the Astartes vessel flew with a skill that even Joker would have envied, dodging the blasts with last second jinks that would have incapacitated even the most sturdy of Krogan pilots.

Just as she was sure that the Tau corvette would bracket in its prey, another red gunship, somewhat larger and longer, appeared behind the Tau corvette, which began to turn in order to face the apparently greater threat.  
She craned her neck and watched as the flying brick kept in the engine wake of the larger vessel with breathtaking agility and speed that belied its ungainly appearance, blasting it with an unrelenting array of weapons. Laser beams scored across the hull, missiles impacted with fiery blasts, then the great cannon atop of the gunship spoke and a thick blue beam blasted a hole clean through the Tau vessel, sending it careening into the earth a kilometer away.

"Laser weaponry, but impact patterns inconsistent with laser burns. Possible enhancement with plasma or explosive particle emissions alongside the laser." Mordin noted as the giants escorted them, silent as moving golems of red metal.  
A grand theater of slaughter greeted her eyes as they reached a plaza, the tau dead barely recognizable as dozens more of armoured Astartes stalked the ruins. Some bore giant guns not unlike some of those carried by the sword wielders that escorted them, while others bore over sized, two handed cannons of various design that were bigger than her entire body. They were all pointed at her group with inhuman haste, green eye lenses radiating hatred and suspicion that she felt instinctively rather than knew.

In the center stood their commander, golden script covering half of his armour and a golden wreath of laurels upon his red helmet framed by a halo, which she noted was made of shining gold too. _Whatever these warriors were, they loved their bling_. One hand held a heavy shield sizzling with protective energy, the other drew a huge sword from the chest of a Tau mech. He stalked towards them with the slow steps of an apex predator, so unlike the inhuman speed with which they moved in combat.

"Greetings, I'm Commander Jane Shepard..." She began as the giant sheated his sword and interrupted with an uphold gauntlet. "Sergeant Thaddeus had made his report to me. I am Aramus, Captain of the Blood Ravens Fourth Company and the Saviour of Aurelia. You made the most preposterous claims, Commander Shepard."

The authority and contempt in the voice even awed Grunt in reverent silence and the warrior stopped a mere meter from her. Upon closer inspection, she could pick up the ornate details on the armour. It was no comfort, for the armour gave an aura of unfathomable age and threat. A giant golden eagle with two heads adorned the chest, a winged skull upon the gorget. The limbs had inlays of black stone with golden script like that of Thaddeus's own, and two skulls decorated the kneepads, smaller skulls sitting upon the knuckles of his huge gauntlets. The left shoulderpad bore a golden raven with a ruby blood drop on its back, the right a gem studded skull inside an iron cross, also in gold.  
 _They sure had a morbid love of skulls beside gold, too._ Numerous wax seals with what appeared to be scripted cloth or paper hang from his armour. _Signifier of rank or decoration?_ , she mused.

"What I said is the truth. You must understand that you seem just unreal to us as we to you. I am half expecting a spell being cast." She tried to put as little sarcasm into her words as she dared, for she was not sure her team could win against a single one of these things, and there was over fifty around her. _Well armed and short tempered, no doubt,_ if she knew her warrior races.  
"That would be me, not the honoured Captain." The voice of another giant replied her. This one was wearing a grey-blue armour and a hood-like protrusion covered the back of his helmet. In his hands he held a staff crowned by the ever-present eagle. "She is telling the truth, for I can see no deception in her mind. Daemonic subterfuge is of course possible."

"Do I look like Satan with a big red tail to you?" She quipped before she could stop herself from offending Ashley alongside the Space Marines, earning herself another glare from the Captain. "My eyes are the eyes of the Emperor, for I am the sword of Vidya. I have slain a thousand witches, but aliens and humans working together seems like a fancy of a diseased mind." The Captain spoke up, and she noted that inside the shield attached to his arm, he held another of those brutal pistols. The bore if its barrel was like that of a small grenade launcher.

"I can prove it to you. If you want to, I can take you to the Citadel and to Earth if I need to." She grinned at him smugly and stood up to her full height the best she could. If Wrex taught her anything, arguing with warriors while appearing weak was a bad idea. "Unless you are of course worried to accept the offer, but let me assure you..." She hoped she was not digging her grave, as she was more than in range of that giant sword.

"I am Astartes! I know no fear!" He interrupted her with growl and his armour rumbled with his voice. He circled her like a caged lion finding prey in his enclosure, and the analogy of the apex predator once again crossed her mind. _These Astartes looked human but did not exactly behave as one._ "The Tau are all but wiped out and the PDF can handle the rest. I will take your offer and tear your head off with my bare hands if you have lied to me." He stood in front of her after the outburst, the giants silent like the grave.

 _Captain Aramus_

The temptation to make good of his promise in advance was overwhelming, but no one rose to the Captaincy of a Battle Company without supreme self control. "I will take Thaddeus and his squad with me on Thunderhawk Talon Alpha. Tarkus, you will have command of the Company and follow us with the Retribution. Jonah, I want you to keep a psychic link with me at all times." He switched his vox to internal so only his brothers would hear him talking.  
Avitus growled and flexed his wide shoulders, the Heavy Bolter in his hands ready to spit death at a split second's notice. "I say we kill them here and now and blast their tiny corvette out of the sky! These xenos-loving heretical scum deserve death, and we will mount the heads of their pets on the walls of the Retribution!" Cyrus shook his head imperceptibly so that only one bestowed with the inhuman senses of their kind could notice, his whispering barely audible. "Sometimes it is wise to learn before you strike, Avitus. The more we know, the easier we will kill them when their perfidy is revealed." Aramus nodded and switched his vox to external once more.

"I will accompany you with Squad Thaddeus on Talon Alpha. Our ship will follow you and we will strike at the first sign of deceit. If you try to desecrate our sacred arms and armour, I will kill you. If you insult the Almighty Emperor, I will kill you. If your superiors are laying a trap, I will kill you." He glared at the human woman and could smell the stink of fear radiate from her every pore, but there was no sign of insincerity in her eyes or falseness in her posture.

 _Commander Shepard_

She tried not to flinch as the giant threatened her. She was tempted to remind him of good manners, but decided that it would not be the wisest course of action. There was no doubt that he could kill her where she stood without much of a struggle. He was an extremely fearsome presence even above Thaddeus. His voice was that of a warrior born, his armour looking as ancient as the stars themselves. She thanked her lucky stars that her audacity provoked him just enough to believe her, but not behead her.  
"I will guarantee your safety, Captain. Let me talk to the Normandy so that they know what transpired." He leaned in closer to her, towering and immovable as the stars themselves. "I do not need you as a bodyguard, mortal." Shepard could not help but flinch back this time. It was like facing a giant out of the legends. She put her helmet back on and began making her report.


	11. Somefink Orky dis way komes

**Aboard the Normandy**

There was barely enough space for the ungainly looking gunship to land, but its pilot did an expert job. The ramp in the front descended and the two men that were not men walked down with ponderous steps. Sounds of awe and fear rippled through from the assembled crowd behind the windows and the Captain made a point of making as much eye contact as he could, until the crew, human or otherwise, cast their glance away rapidly. They both had their helmets clipped to their belts now, and Shepard could see that his face was like that of a noble, but arrogant knight's visage, hewn from stone. His jaw was even wider set than Thaddeus's, deep brown eyes glaring imperiously at the assembled crew.

"You will have to pass through decontamination with us first." She informed him and made the point of walking through the door first. _Always show dominance when facing a mighty predator_ , she thought and the two Astartes filed in after her, filling the chamber with their inhuman bulk.  
They made no noise beside their slow breathing as the ship's scanners and decontamination equipment did its work. They had to duck their heads as they walked after her into the ship.

 _Captain Aramus_

The alien vessel looked not as abhorrent as those of the Eldar or Tau, but it was not human non the less. The lack of hard angles, the soft curves and light, the humans and aliens interacting as comrades all conspired to make his stomachs churn with disgust.  
"Shall Yeoman Chambers show you your rooms now? Or perhaps the mess hall? Fighting does make me hungry." She tried to ask them jovially as the crew stared at the human but not human men.

"We require no quarters or..." He stopped. There was no reason to tell her that they did not need to drink unless they lost blood, nor that their armour drew the waste products from their blood and recycled them into nutrients, nor that they did not need sleep. _Never let your foe guess your strength._ "We are still ... on edge from combat and we will be staying up for some time. We would appreciate it if you could show us the mess hall." _Let her be lulled into a false sense of security and cooperation._ Thaddeus caught on and nodded with a smile. The young Sergeant always had a rapport with mortals, which was why he had chosen him and his squad as his escort.

"I will be making my report now, but you can contact me through any communication panel on the ship, Captain." She did not outwards show her relief at their apparent willingness to go along with her plans, but he could tell it from her scent and gentle shifting of weight. The next minute the most cheerful and energetic woman whom he ever had the misfortune to see appeared next to him with wide green eyes and orange hair.

"Hello! I'm Yeoman Kelly Chambers and I'm honoured to meet you! I never met your people before and our knowledge is scarce of your culture, so please let me know if I am breaking a taboo or any cultural norms." She smiled at them like a child at her new favourite toy, and he was already annoyed. "Please Yeoman, take us to the mess hall." Asking a mortal like he was some commoner grated on his nerves even more.

 _Kelly Chambers_

"Please follow me!" She beamed another charming smile at the huge men and lead them to the lift, almost bouncing with excitement. _All that armour and swords on their hips made them look like fantasy knights from some grand adventure, and she was first to get to know them better! What stories could they tell? So much decoration, a bit grim no doubt, but still so interesting. What do they mean?_ she wondered as the lift descended to the mess hall.  
Everybody stopped eating the moment they stepped out of the lift. While the newcomers' faces were masks of solemn neutrality, she could tell something was bothering them. She was very good with people, and they both held themselves as rigid as statues. Perhaps it was just the no doubt totally new and alien environment. She wondered what their own living space looked like. _Was it like a medieval castle in space_ , she wondered.

She went over to Gardner and leaned over the counter. "Hello there, do you got anything for our new friends?" It took him a second to snap his mind back to his job, whispering to Kelly. "I'm sure there is something here... are they human? They can't be human, they are twice the size of Vega! If he is any indication, they'll eat us out of our supplies in a week." He stopped his wondering as Kelly shook her head. "Don't worry, we are going back to the Citadel. We'll be there in a few hours! But we need to find some Elcor sized chairs for them, do you got anything that would work?"

Just as he was about to reply, he looked up in apparent horror at the newcomers. "Don't eat that! That's for Quarians, its dextro rations!" The Captain was already eating his way through a bunch of Quarian fruit cubes. Often joked about as Soylent Blue, it was a rather bland protein bar made from the plants Quarians cultivated on the Migrant Fleet, and when heated, it quickly melted to a liquid that one could ingest through a drinking straw or induction port. It was also capable of inducing vomiting and diarrhea in humans after a few bites.

"Please do not eat that, it is not human food, it will cause you indigestion!" She did not quite dare to slap it out of that giant gauntlet, but she was damned if the new contact was soured due to a troubled stomach. "This bland and tasteless provision will do, thank you." He replied with measured and somewhat forced politeness and simply kept eating it with measured care. "Are you dextro-amino acid based?" She asked, but then she saw Thaddeus eating a well cooked steak with gusto. The two just looked at each other in apparent confusion, but the Captain appeared fine, so she dropped the matter. _  
_

 _Commander Shepard_

Jane just finished her report when Mordin called her. "Captain, come to the lab. You must see this." The Salarian's tone was even more urgent than usual and she quickly jogged to the lab. He found him pouring over the scan data from the decontamination chamber. "What did you find, Professor?"

"The decontamination chamber scans the entire body for microorganisms." He began, swift fingers tapping on the holographic keyboard. "Did they bring some disease aboard?" She asked with growing concern. "No no, they carry no foreign organisms at all in their bodies from what I can tell. None! Not even symbiotic bacteria. This is the most fascinating xenobiological discovery of the century!" He simply hugged Shepard, who looked at him oddly. "Thank you Captain. These Astartes as you call them, are from what I can tell human in origin."

"In origin. What are they now?" She asked. She already knew they were not wholly human. Genetic alterations were outlawed in Citadel space, but that did not stop the occasional crime lord, terrorist organization, or megalomaniacal father from trying. "Something wonderful, terrifying, amazing and impossible. Next phase of Evolution. Our scans could only get an accurate reading of the surface of their heads, but they have reinforced, ultra dense skeletal structure and hypertoned musculature. Immune system flawless, facial blood flow suggesting two slow beating hearts. Enhanced regeneration capabilities and hyper oxygenated blood. Similar to Krogan biology but with exponentially better results. No non functional DNA from what we can tell. Must be artificial. Synapse biochemistry in facial nerves wholly unprecedented in signal transmission speed..."

"Professor, please slow down. If I get what you mean, they are half human half Krogan super soldiers?" She asked, the thought not appealing at all. "Analogy flawed. Nothing human nor Krogan is comparable. These organisms are _perfect_ , Commander, or as close to it as the laws of physics allow. Some of their DNA I can not identify for certain nor can I guess what is inside their chests or skulls, but they represent genetic engineering far beyond anything that we have dreamed was possible."  
"Just how advanced are we talking, Mordin. Could they have been made by the Reapers?" She was growing more concerned by the minute. "No. Reaper technology relies more on cybernetics and is not advanced enough to produce results like this. Some of this is... simply not biologically possible, Shepard! I can not even begin to guess what sort of technology could produce something like this and what their full capabilities are."

"Commander, this is Kelly. Despite my best efforts, the Captain just ate a plate full of Tali's Soylent Blue. No accident yet." Mordin looked up and smiled at her. "Of course not. Cell structure extremely resistant. Energy efficiency and chemical complexity beyond anything ever observed. I doubt there is anything which they can not eat, Commander."  
She was taken aback and moved to the comm unit. "It is all right, Kelly. Apparently they got iron stomachs." The girl's voice sounded relieved. "That's the best news I heard in weeks, Commander. I was afraid we made the diplomatic blunder of the decade." She turned back to Mordin. "When I encountered them, they acted like Krogan. Predatory, confrontational. How human are they?"

"More human in thought pattern than biology, Commander. Species extremely dangerous in combat. Composition of armour resistant to our scanning, but most likely superior to Tau body armour." She sighed."Thank you Mordin. I'll try to curb my sarcastic comebacks. We don't want them causing an incident."

 _Kelly Chambers_

"This is the galaxy map, and that over there..." She was cut off mid sentence as the crew screamed. The giants moved faster than the eye could follow, their pistols pointed squarely at EDI as she came around the corner. "What is that?" The captain yelled with such a deep voice and a facial expression so utterly hateful that she cringed and stepped away by instinct, terror making her legs shake.

"Stop, please stop! Its EDI! She is safe!" She pleaded as EDI slowly put her hands up in the air. "I have been examined by the top scientists of Earth. They verified I'm not a threat to organics." EDI explained with a calm voice that she envied. "Insanity!" He exclaimed. "You let the Abominable Intellect wander your ship?" He rounded upon Kelly with that inhuman, terrifying speed that made everyone flinch. "She is part of the crew... she is part of the ship! She is the ship! She has a lot of internal safety programs to prevent her from killing us."

The two men slowly, reluctantly lowered their guns and the crew came out from behind cover. "Most AI is outlawed in Citadel Space. Trust me that the Council would not permit EDI to freely move on the ship unless they had a good reason to be sure she is safe. She helped us defeat the Reapers, who were another Artificial, I mean Abominable Intelligence." She prayed to every supernatural entity she could remember that they would believe her.  
"There is only a limit on how much heresy I can stomach. Keep that... thing's spirit bound, or I will take action. Take us to the quarters mortal, now!" The Captain barked at her, still glaring at EDI. Most of the times she would have pouted at the tone, but she just scurried quickly to the lift, the giants following her with a wide stride.

 **Aboard the Strike Cruiser Retribution**

The tiny, strange alien shape of the Normandy was followed by the hulking bulk of the Strike Cruiser as they flew towards the wormhole. At three quarters the speed of light, what was painfully slow for the Alliance vessel was top speed for the Astartes one and a great plume of superheated plasma followed it like the tail of a comet.  
"Any news from the Captain, Brother Jonah?" Tarkus asked as he stood behind the Hololith on the bridge. "A minor incident about an apparently shackled case of the Abominable Intellect, Brother Sergeant." Martellus's mechandendrites twitched. Were not his brothers aboard that ship, he would have blasted it out of space without care for the consequences or the feelings of any Magos radical enough to wish to study the thing. "First xenos collaboration, now techno-heresy. I will pray to the Omnissiah for the spiritual safety of our brothers."

"Why is it any surprise. Heretics heap foulness upon foulness. Once you fall from the Emperor's Grace, damnation has no end." Avitus gnashed his teeth and studied the Normandy's sensor image once more. He had calculated the best firing solution a thousand times already, but began anew.  
"I will alert the Navigator to brace herself and make sure the Astropaths are sedated. Some say universes are like bubbles atop the Warp, and if we pass onto a new one I do not want them to die from shock. An Astartes can weather such things, but not a mortal." Jonah explained and strode off towards the lifts. Most would have been terrified, but Space Marines knew no fear.

 **Aboard the Normandy**

The two warriors stood beside her as their ships crossed the wormhole. Most of the Citadel's fleets were stationed around the station in case the Tau came through, but it was equally impressive sight for any newcomer, so she hoped. _Lets not give that huge dreadnought any ideas._  
They glared ahead of themselves with their customary grim determination. There was no look of awe or surprise on their faces. No doubt they made being stoic into a point of pride. She did not even bother to shrug or bring up the incident with EDI and ordered the Normandy to dock, while the dreadnought kept anchor near the portal.

 **Omega**

Every mercenary overlord, smuggler captain and mafia boss was running scared in Omega as the giant heap of scrap was flying towards it. All except Aria T'Loak. The unknown vessel has appeared on sensors as it powered towards the station, a seven kilometer long monster of cobbled together junk and cannons the size of cruisers. The disappearance of merchant and transport ships in the past day now had an explanation that was rapidly encroaching her domain.  
Still she had all the available power shunted to the weapons and the shields. Good thing the Cerberus upgrades were in good working order. She knew that Omega was a big, immobile target. If someone truly wanted to try and destroy it, they would be firing already. So whoever was piloting that flying junk heap wanted something else than blowing her from the Afterlife to the afterlife, something those guns could very well accomplish even if she was overestimating their power. She just had to wait until they talked.

"We got a message incoming, boss." Bray reported, looking somewhat unnerved, but he trusted Aria's instincts, and leash, enough not to flee. "Put them on the terminal." The transmission was fuzzy, but she could make out an overly muscled green brute in a leather jacket on the screen. _A new species?_ She wondered as he began to speak.  
"Ahoy mutie! I'm Kaptin Bludflagg callin' from da Kroozer Gitstompa! I'ze lookin for a port to get some fuel'n'grog and trade what little these tiny barges had, hur hur. Now ya either let da boys dock and buy us a round of ale or we'll blast yer little rokk to zog an' take all yer loot." He took a big breath through a pipe that must have been made out of actual piping and his tiny red eye glared at Aria through the rising smoke.

"I am Aria T'Loak. This is Omega, and I am Omega. Everything you see is mine. You are welcome to dock, but if you try to take my station I'll ram my fist so far up your green ass that you'll taste your own blood. When you get here, meet me in Afterlife." She glared at the Kaptin with a vicious grin that made Blue Suns bosses break out in sweat. "Har har, I like yer style mutie! We'll be comin' aboard with da boys. Hope yer bar is not too pansy, Areea T'lokk."  
When the transmission ended, Bray chuckled. "I never believed I would see a race of bigger thugs than the Krogan." She scowled and turned to him. "Triple security on all levels and make sure any boarders run into the laser fence. If this 'Bloodflag' tries anything, I will make boots out of his green hide."

The Gitstompa slowly came to a halt and a docking arm extended towards it from Omega. The Kaptin came striding down first through the ramshackle tube, with two of his lieutenants in his wake. One was a giant brute with a rocket on his back, the other a sly looking assassin if she ever saw one. After them came a hundred of green thugs, the first dozen wielding giant hammers and the second over sized cannons. The rest were smaller and followed them with a collection of meat cleavers and primitive rifles. Some forms of small bouncing animals and green, tiny aliens raced under their feet. _Maybe the Vorcha will have a new meal beside raw ship rats_ , she mused.

When they reached the Afterlife, the first thing she noticed was their size. The video capture had shown that they were huge, but it failed to show just how huge. The Kaptin coming up the stairs would have towered over a Yagh with arms bigger than her entire body. The second thing was the unholy stench, a combination of years old sweat, unwashed bodies, rank alcohol and rotting meat enhanced halitosis coupled with the most vile of lubricating oil and dirtiest of leather caked in old blood. The bastard strode through her bar as if he owned it, the locals scattering before the green hulks.

"Ahoy mutie! This is a nice lil' joint ya got here warmin ya purple ass!" He hawked and spat filth all over the floor, gold encased fangs gleaming from under layers of grime. "I need fuel for da engins an' something to chew for da boys. We got this fer ya." He waved his giant, spiked cutlass and a few of the smaller greenskins brought a few crates, still marked by the Blood Pack insignia and full of looted weapons. "These naff little grot-shootas aren't worth zog to da boyz, but I figure ya can sell 'em for a nice little profit. I got a hundred boxes like dis one fer ya."

She inspected the goods and a smile spread across her face. These were good quality firearms from the Batarian State's plundered bunkers and she could get a very nice price from the mercs. "One thing, Bloodflag. There is a single rule on Omega that everybody new has to learn. Don't. Fuck. With. Aria." She glared at him, and the brute simply laughed. She expertly surprassed her surprise. Nobody had ever done that for centuries, ever since her reputation has spread wide enough. At least not had done it and lived afterwards, anyway. "Than ya betta not give me a reason to. Orkses is made for fightin' and winnin' and we'll krump anyfing dat stand in our way." She simply grinned at him and gestured across the bar. "There is a whole galaxy for you to plunder. As long as I get my cut."

"Deal... for now." He grinned with huge golden teeth and made his way down to the bar, apparently not in a hurry to set up the details. The bigger orks, all three meters tall and almost twice as wide as a Krogan, followed him like obedient Varren. The rest simply began to buy, steal, and pilfer any drinks and food they could find. She observed the brute with the rocket backpack as he approached the bartender. _Was he wearing bricks on his hands as brass knuckles?_

"Brikkfist is hungry. Brikkfist is thirsty. Give me all yer booze an give me somfink to eat." He dropped a single tooth onto the bar top and the man recoiled. "Listen, you need money to..." He could not finish it. The ork grabbed him by the collar. "Either ya get me grub, or I'll be klenchin' me hunger with ya, get it, humie?" The unfortunate bartender doubled over from the stench of rotting teeth and began to hastily fetch more food and ale.

The small, child sized green creatures chittered and went around under the tables to pick up litter and scraps, clad in tattered shirts and raggy pants. Despite their small stature, they seemed to carry junk rifles and various crude bludgeoning instruments. The small, ball like creatures were everywhere too, in various shapes, with various numbers of eyes and legs. _The vorcha better get to cleaning these things up fast_ , she mused. She booted the closest one back to the main floor, where it hit an the back of a bigger ork's head. The creature whirled around and knocked the nearest smaller one out with a single, quick punch, much to the laughter of the green company.

She looked to the others. All wore stripped baggy pants and various pirate accessories from Earth's past. Eye patches like Bludflagg's own, cybernetic peg legs, metal plates riveted straight to leathery hides, even the odd creature on their shoulders parroting random words. Soon they began to beat their chests with their fists and slap the mugs on the tables, chanting.

 _"Fifteen Orks on a dead man's hulk,_  
 _Lookin' down the barrel of a gun,_  
 _Gruntin' at each other_  
 _through big, sharp teef,_  
 _Sayin' "This one'll give us some fun"_

 _Fourteen Orks on a humie's ship,_  
 _Killin' anything that isn't green,_  
 _Gruntin' at each other_  
 _through big, sharp teef,_  
 _Sayin' "Times be gettin' lean"_

 _Thirteen Orks with the Captain's chest,_  
 _Hopin' to quench their greedy thirst,_  
 _Gruntin' at each other_  
 _through big, sharp teef,_  
 _Sayin' "I was da wun dat saw it first"_

 _One lone Ork left to steal the loot,_  
 _Wishin' it hadn't turned out so,_  
 _Gruntin' to 'imself_  
 _through big, sharp teef,_  
 _Sayin' "I shoulda let the pilot go!"_

These orks could be very handy, if she could manipulate them, and very dangerous if not. _It was a daunting task, but when did Aria T'Loak fail to rise to a challange?_ She was not worried, at least not much. After all Petrovsky had more brains in his arse than all of these brutes put together had in their heads. Not that trying to fight them was an option anyway. Even if she could drive that super dreadnought out, Omega would be crippled in the fight. Her purple fingers began to dance across her holographic keyboard as she started making plans and contingencies.


	12. Facing the Dark Future

**The Normandy, Serpent Nebula**

"We will follow your shuttle to this Citadel Tower in Thunderhawk Talon Alpha." The towering Captain announced as he stomped away towards the shuttle bay with his sergeant in tow. Any other day she would have stopped them, but she had received word that some anti-human groups have organised a rally at the docks, no doubt still holding a grudge since she shot Joram Talid in order to save Kolyat. The last thing she needed was eight foot tall extradimensional superhumans reinforcing anti-human sentiment with their chainsaw swords.

"Commander, I have notified Citadel control. They will clear a way for the Talon Alpha to the Tower." Traynor reported, looking more at ease now with the giants off the bridge.  
"Wise precaution. Scan data indicates high energy plasma based engines. Could pose dangers to shuttlecraft following too close behind." Mordin noted and Samantha nodded back in thanks. While a very intelligent woman with an outstanding record, she still sometimes had self confidence issues.

She watched on the sensors as the brick shaped red gunship slowly emerged from the hangar and began to follow the drone sent to guide it in. "Mordin, Ashley, Liara and Miranda, come with me. Everybody else, make sure the Normandy is ready for takeoff." The two spectres and the scientists went to the airlock to face off against the jeering crowd towards the taxi, trusting in C-Sec to hold the mob at bay.

 **The Retribution, Serpent Nebula**

Jonah Orion felt as if the world has been blanketed under a thick grey fog once the Retribution cleared the Wormhole. There was a sense of dislocation, Warp was distant, the walls of reality holding it back almost fully. The Navigator could barely see the Astronomican's pulse and the Astropaths were nigh useless, if at least alive and unharmed. His powers felt weakened like never before, though it was not as bad as the proximity of a pariah, still he was diminished. The only silver lining was that he could feel no demonic entity trying to pry his mind open in decades.

While he was monitoring the Captain aboard that distant space station to the best of his abilities, Avitus was running scans on the alien fleet. The ships were tiny and undergunned, but there was so many of them. Some had curved, finlike shapes akin to a merge of Eldar and Tau aesthetics, while thwo other types bore resemblances to the Normandy. Others were almost insectile, and one fleet particularly looked like ring shaped cargo haulers which have seen better days.

"There is so many of them that we can not miss, yet we would run out of macrocannon ammunition before we killed them all." Avitus complained to himself.  
Cyrus looked at Tarkus before speaking. "We should send word to the Inquisition. This is Ordo Xenos matters."  
Martellus shook his head. "The Mechanicus should benefit from whatever technological advantage we can uncover. The Inquisition would interfere with this process."  
Tarkus silenced both of them with an upraised gauntlet. "Brothers, the Ordos will be notified, after we give the Priests of Mars a head start. If this Shepherd was telling the truth, we must be cautious. Inquisitorial politics are fickle at the best of times."

 **The Citadel Tower**

The Councilors and Admiral Hackett were eyeing up the giant in front of them, and he was looking back at them. Shepard thought about those old western films but did not particularly like where that idea was heading.

"I am Captain Aramus of the Blood Ravens Fourth Company, scion to the Immortal God-Emperor of Terra and I demand passage to the planet you call Earth, in the name of the Holy Imperium of Mankind. " The towering warrior said, the artificially deepened voice coming through his helmet's grim speaker grille.

"The Citadel Council greets you, Captain. Spectre Shepard has informed us of your arrival and we would prefer to have cordial relations with your state." Tevos replied, deciding to err on the side of politeness. No amount of persuasion could deter the Captain from keeping his weapons on his person and she was not keen on finding out how good they are at overcoming even the most advanced of security kinetic barriers.

"Are the Blood Ravens the military arm of your goverment, Captain?" Sparatus asked, and Jane tried to shake the mental image of an alien space roman talking to an extradimensional space roman. Humanity by large agreed that it was a good thing the Turians did not take offense at the comparison, having somewhat a positive opinion about the ancient empire builders.

"We are part of it." The space marine replied after a pause. She knew they were xenophobes to some extent, but hoped that like Cerberus during the Collector crisis, they could concentrate on the common enemies.

"Why do you want to visit Earth?" It was Valern's turn to question, his large eyes scanning the towering warrior up and down. "We need to verify your claims about it being a parallel to Holy Terra. The Warp is a fickle place and we must entertain that possibility. Otherwise I would not be here."

"Excuse me, but what is this Warp?" Sparatus knew the English word and its meaning, but even for an alien it was obvious that the meaning was different here.  
The giant looked almost puzzled at first, silent for a few moments. "The Warp is the Sea of Souls. The underworld that some of your local human religions theme as Hell."  
Everyone was silent for some time, before Valern simply decided to skip this issue. Perhaps this was some sort of religious belief that would be later explored, but right now they had more pressing issues.

"We captured a Tau soldier, a so called Fire Warrior. He mentioned a race he called Be'gel, or Orcs, that could be a threat to Humanity and the rest of the Council races. Have you ever encountered an alien species by that name? Pardon us but we always thought orcs were a fictional race." Hackett asked, trying not to sound ridiculous about space orcs.

"I have battled the orks for two centuries. You can bribe them for a time, but you can never be at peace with them. They exist solely for war and they can tear a human apart with their bare hands. This station would not last a day against a full blown Waaagh." They flinched to a man at the last word, half a shout, half a growl, and searched the armoured figure for any trace of sarcasm or joke, but found none.

"Is he serious?" Miranda asked Shepard in a low tone, out of his earshot. The giant turned his helmeted head and green lenses burned into Miranda's eyes.  
"Orks may be comical to some, but underestimating them is the quickest path to their stomachs. " He paused for a few moments, collecting what he learned off the Extranet while having retreated to their cabins on the ship. "Imagine something stronger than a Krogan with a Vorcha's ability to regenerate and the lifespan of the Asari, coupled with an innate psyc... biotic field that enhances their technology."

 _Cunning bastard keeps intel about the Imperium to the barest, but at least he is willing to talk about its enemies,_ Jane thought. "What is the easiest way to beat these orks?" She asked him.  
"The older the ork gets, the bigger he will become. The bigger he is, the higher his rank becomes. Kill the biggest ones and the horde will loose its morale." It was Thaddeus who replied. He seemed far more sociable than his commanding officer.

"Somehow I feel that is easier said than done." She looked at Aramus. "Captain, what about the Tau?"  
He looked down at her. "They are a species that uses other xenos as mercenaries or client races. Their technology is powerful, but their physiology is weak when it comes to close combat." He turned back to the Council. "I will, for the time, refrain from hostilities if you can prove that this Earth is really Terra. It is against the purpose of my being to wage war on the Homeworld. I will answer more questions about the Imperium's foes after you prove you are saying the truth. I'll await you on your ship, Commander Shepard."

His message delivered, he turned and walked away from the Council. "Commander, I understand you are facing a difficult situation, but as you record with the Krogan prove, you get along well with warriors. We do not want these humans as our enemies." Tevos turned to her after the superhuman was out of any possible earshot, but there was a question in her voice when she said the word human. "Professor Mordin, please explain." Jane nodded to the aged professor.

"Honoured Councilors. The Captain is only human in origin. He is part of a warrior species made with extremely advanced genetical engineering. Rapid healing factor, multiple redundant organs and an extremely adaptable and resilient biochemistry." He tried to talk slower than his usual hyperactive manner.

"That sounds very much like the Krogan, Professor Solus, do you think we can use the same solution if necessary?" Valern asked and Shepard had to surprass a sneer of disdain. "Not possible. Immune system and genetical structure exceptionally durable. Not even sure of sexual reproduction. Psychological analysis suggest that even trying such a course of action would result in a similarly genocidal response."

"Let us try not to poison the short tempered genetically engineered killing machine, shall we? We do know that there are three other contingents like his out there, likely each with a dreadnought like that." Sparatus replied and shook his crested head. "The Captain's armour was highly decorated, as were his weapons. My impression of his culture is that of a warrior with some concept of honour or similar system of values."

"Councilor, to the extent our limited data allows us to guess, he sounds and bears himself as knight of Earth's past. Appealing to martial pride and a code of honour may get us farther than biological weapons." Miranda spoke up, walking back and forth before the Council. "Are we to take the word of an Ex-Cerberus terrorist?" Valern glared at her.

"Shepard vouches for her good intentions. We would be dead thrice over if it was not for her." Tevos retorted, trying to tone down the confrontation. "If showing this warrior Earth will avoid a war, so bet it." The other two nodded and she looked to Hackett.  
"I will trust Commander Shepard will keep him from doing anything destructive." He replied. "We also need to discuss the reports we are getting from C-sec." Jane looked up at her superior. "Sir?"

"We have been getting reports lately of certain anti-human activist groups. There are concerns that they are preparing to form a terrorist group and strike at Alliance targets. Saracino is already using rumors of this movement to gather the scraps of whatever Cerberus supporters are left." Sparatus explained and shook his head. "We can not let these incidents get any worse. It would give Terra Firma too much power as well as incite anti-alien sentiment in humans. This situation has the potential of spiralling out of control quickly. The information is not officially released yet and we want to keep it from gaining more attention."

"To prevent more radicals from joining either sides." She nodded. _Radicals, human or not, never give up._ It was never that easy, Shepard knew. "I will keep my eyes open, Councilors."

"It is decided. Take the Captain to Earth and do your best to allay his fears, Spectre Shepard." Tevos said and the three others nodded. "This meeting is adjourned."

 **Omega**

The bowels of Omega were changing. Unknown to anybody, spores were shred from ork hides and flew in the ventillation systems to travel all across the station. Many ended up in bright areas to be cleaned up, or in less bright areas to be trampled underfoot as it tried to grow. Others ended up in ventillation ducts without any source of nourishment to stay dormant for centuries to come. But some managed to get to the garbage disposal and recycling areas, as well as heaps of organic trash left in hidden, abandoned chambers.

There the spores grew with the genetically engineered speed of their kind, greenish mushrooms sprouting in the matter of hours to voraciously consume any biological waste. Some of these had the luck to land in areas with some lighting left, and the algae beneath their surface swelled with the absorbed power. Most of the spores became colonies of fungi that began to break down the rock of the asteroid to absorb what little mineral content they could find.

But others that found greater sources of biological matter began to swell, transmorphing into cocoons. Inside these cocoons, life began to take shape in the form that was most fitting for the amount of resources available. After a day, many of these cocoons broke apart in great goushes of amniotic juices as the Squigs inside crawled out. Squigs were the most common of all Orkoid creatures, their genome as variable as their forms to best adapt and shape their environment.

Some were mucous, fatty eaters of trash and fungi with an eye or two. These crawled the ducts and began to feed on whatever they could find, growing bigger and fatter as their stubby legs carried them from meal to meal. Others were less benevolent in nature, with up to six eyes and huge, fanged mouths full of razor sharp teeth. This wilder breed began hunting like lone stalkers in the endless night of Omega's underbelly, their gaping maws consuming other squigs, rats, or whatever other vermin was not fast enough to flee.

A few fungous growths found themselves by sheer fortune near abandoned trash heaps, broken down recycling machinery or even corpses of those slain in battle and forgotten as they fell off the catwalks to their doom. Rapidly growing tendriles pierced deep into fractured armour, dug through layers of plastic garbage and corroded away the wrappings from forgotten crates of rations. In the cocoons of these, the shapes inside began taking on a humanoid aspect.

 **The Serpent Nebula**

 _Commander Shepard_

Shepard waited for the Thunderhawk to return behind the airlock to the hangar. It had taken a detour to its mothership before docking with the Normandy, something that the Captain forgot to mention to her, much to her annoyance. The red vessel did not tarry, and in a minute it was out of the cavernous prow hangar bay again, heading to her ship. She tracked the sensor readings of the Normandy about its progress on her Omnitool and shut it off when the gunship finally arrived.

As usual, the rest of Thaddeus's squad have stayed aboard the vessel, but there was a newcomer as the two Astartes officers walked down the ramp. This was the self identified spellcaster who she had met on the surface of Veralis. He bore a pistol in one hand, and an eagle topped staff in the other, his armour a dull greyish blue and his helmet haloed by a strange hooded device. She tapped her foot on the floor while the three giants went into the airlock for decontamination.  
"Captain, I would greatly appreciate it if you told me about any such detours in the future." She greeted the trio with the displeased frown that high ranking soldiers made in every universe when they were left out of the loop.

"I decided to bring Epistolary Orion with us for this trip. He is the Librarian of my company and I place great value on his wisdom." The towering Captain replied after taking off his helmet. He was no doubt enjoying her discomfort, even it did not show on his face. The Librarian took his helm off and simply nodded at her. Even from limited experience with the Space Marines, she could tell he was ancient, or had more than his fair share of harrowing encounters. His brown skin bore so many scars and wrinkles that he could have been old enough to be her grandfather. Or if what Mordin said about their aging, possibly her great-grandfather.

But his eyes were what drew her gaze. They reflected a life of unimaginable horrors and suffering the likes of which she could never guess. She felt a mix of admiration and pity for the man, for he had must seen and faced Hell itself. Not even the veterans of Reaper invasion had such a haunted look in their eyes.  
"Welcome aboard, Epistolary Orion." She offered her hand to the Librarian, who gave it a gentle shake after raising an eyebrow.

"Thank you, Commander. Wisdom is the path we must follow here." The voice certainly matched the eyes. She decided that she was quite glad that the third Astartes joined his fellows. Coupled with Thaddeus, he maybe able to hold back their zealout of a Captain from doing anything rash.

 _Jonah Orion_

He could feel that she was glad to see him. Through his psyker's eye, the cybernetic woman was a tightly knot mass of determination, loyalty and directness. Not unlike his Captain, though he knew better than to give voice to that.  
The scarring of his soul and face left by the daemon's violation and his centuries in contact with the Warp as a powerful battle psyker have torn deep lines across his face, in spite of his Astartes physiology. No doubt the air of age and apparent humanity it gave him helped her accept his arrival, which was just as well. His presence was necessary on board the Normandy to ease the Warp transit of the Retribution to Earth.

"Hello there, Sir! I am Yeoman Kelly Chambers and I am here to accomodate your needs during your stay on the ship." The young woman that so cheerfully greeted him was a veritable ball of enthusiasm, curiosity and overwhelming, open friendliness.  
"Take me to my appointed quarters, Yeoman Chambers. I am not as young as I used to be and solitary meditation would do me good." It could have been said that he was trying to reinforce his status as an elder, but in truth he did need to meditate and pinpoint the Normandy for the Retribution's Navigator to follow. The light of the Astronomican was barely visible, and the Astartes were taking no chances at getting lost in the warp. He recited the first verses of the meditational prayers as Kelly lead him to his room.

 **The Serpent Nebula**

The whole Citadel fleet watched as the Normandy departed Earth through the semi-repaired Mass Relay. It was still not fully operational, and the transits were not as always fast as they used to be. The officers aboard the vessels now turned to watch the Retribution, expecting it to follow suit after the Normandy.

Instead of approaching the Relay however, the giant dreadnought turned its cannon-endowed prow towards the general direction of the Solar system. The sensors of the science vessels in orbit around the Citadel began to register exotic forms of radiation, just as they had did with the probes that began the whole encounter.

Space and time itself buckled and tore in front of the crimson ship, flowing into a purple tear on the face of reality. The whole population on the Citadel stared in awe either through telescopes, the naked eye, or at their viewscreens as the vessel approached the rift. Bolts of multicoloured lightning that left an unexplainable foul taste in their mouths lashed out to pull the giant warship into the rift in the blink of the eye. With an implosion of nameless and unspeakable colours, the rift was gone as if it had never existed before, throwing the Council and everybody else into a confusion filled argument about what just happened. Many inexplicable nightmares were soon to follow that lasted for weeks.

 **Omega**

Aria kicked another Squig away from her feet. This one was a big, fatty lump of flesh with six legs, two eyes and a singularly stupid expression on its face as it flew three meters to land in a heap of trash. She was not surprised when it began gnawing on some plastic waste.

It has been two days since her meeting with Bloodflag, and the Ork "Kroozer" as it was called, had made its way to prowl around the neighbouring systems by somehow dissapearing at the edge of the system and reappearing a few hours later every time. She did not know how they pulled this off, but nobody managed to witness the deed in action.

Most of the Ork's victims were pirate gangs. Their ships returned in the Kroozer's hangar and ferried orks to and back from the station, each evolving hourly with new accessories of scrap bolted to its patched hull. Extra engines, ramshakcle weapons and scrap armour soon covered them all. She did not mind this, as the pirates were just as likely to attack transports she wanted to safely dock on Omega as they were likely to give her some gift of allegiance.

She had come to know a little about the Ork ways during their forays onto Omega and she was taking notes and comparing reports as she sat in her couch. Bloodflag was either referred to as Captain or simply as Boss by his underlings, and he had two elite cadre of warriors that were clearly the most dangerous of the greenskins. He had three underlings, the giant slab of muscle called Brickfist, who wore his namesakes as knuckle dusters of all things, an assassin called Spookums, and his engineer who answered to Mister Nailbrain. The "mek" very seldom seen, while Brickfist often went around to keep a semblance of discipline amongst the orks. Spookums was never really observed, he just seemed to pop up now and then, confusing any would be tracker by his untracable nature.

His bodyguards were known as the Nobs, and they were a mean bunch, each a towering brute of muscle with armour covering most of their bodies, or even bolted to their skin. They were festooned with grisly trophies and metallic charms, and each carried a unique melee weapon of singularly brutal design. Giant pincer claws, buzzsaw axes, chainsaw axes or swords or even mauls were present, while most also boosted gold plated pistol at their hips. The nobs glared around themselves sullenly, like a pack of pitbulls waiting to be unleashed.

The other upper echelon were the Flash Gits, gun loving maniacs who seemed to dress as much as a pirate as they could and wielded mutli-barreled heavy weapons that were bigger than her entire body. They boasted about their guns, their hats, and then their guns again, bartering for whatever got their fancy. Whenever it was a rocket launcher or a pirate hat, the shop owner was left with a handful of teeth. It was best to accept this, as it was the orks currency and disrespecting a three meters tall pirate with a gun as tall as himself was an idea not even the stupidest of merchants entertained.

The middle echelons consisted of the Lootas, Storm Boys, Commandos and Tank Busters.

Covered in heavy weapons and assorted scrap, the Lootas were gun crazy junkrats who shifted through whatever wreckage they could find, more often than not liberating something that did not belong to them in the process. She had seen one toting the gun turret of a Mako as if it was his favourite stuffed animal. Not even the other orks liked them, no doubt having been exposed to the work of their sticky fingers.

The Storm Boys were paratroopers with jetpacks strapped to their backs. They seemed much more disciplined than the other orks, sporting chainsaw swords and rapid fire submachine guns, as well as what appeared to be military uniforms out of Earth's world wars. One squad of them took to marching up and down before the entrance of the Afterlife while singing some old soldier's song, and it took five hours before they got tired of it.

The Commandos were always creeping around, covered in a mix of gaudy camoufledge netting and carrying their heavy rifles and long, sharp knives. They seemed to have a love for cigars and wearing night vision goggles wherever they went, no matter how well it the area was. She could have sworn she has seen one wearing purple camo netting one day, but just as she looked at his way, there was suddenly nothing there. They were also the only type of Ork which seemed comfortable operating alone, instead of in gangs like the rest of their kind.

The Tank Busters were an anti-armour contingent who sported rocket launchers of singularly strange and primitive designs, even going as far as to use limpet mines on a stick as hammers, or lead around leashed Squigs laden with stacks of dynamite of all things. They often nosed around whatever vehicle happened to be in sight. She was glad that this particular detachment did not visit often. One spark and they could blow an entire district up with themselves.

The lower end of the orks were the so called Boys, divided into two groups. The Shooter boys were infantry with heavy bore, primitive rifles and vicious looking knives, mostly clad in toughened leather and a few metal scrap plates. The other were the Chopper boys, who exchanged the rifles for handguns and giant cleavers. Despite their lower standing, perhaps they were the most belligerent, or stupid, of their kind. Brawls have become a constant nightmare in all drinking establishments. After a Blood Pack gang got clubbed to death with those bulky rifles, everybody realised that it was best to let the orks brawl it out between themselves.

Most of the gangs learned after a few fights. The orks were insanely tough and quite happy to eat whoever they shot or clubbed to death. A single ork was extremely dangerous at close range, quite easily capable overpowering even a Krogan, but their ramshackle rifles were as inaccurate as their aim, and even they did not shurg off headshots. However a gang of ten to thirty orks could simply shoot in the rough direction of their enemy and the spray of bullets was guaranteed to hit something. Said bullets were almost as big as her fist and filled with explosives. Crude, primitive, but quite lethal if they managed to hit.

Some orks were more crafty than violent, and soon began selling whatever they could get their hands on at the back alleys and black markets. From selling Squig flesh and leather to engine parts and looted Omnigel, the only constant seemed to be their love for haggling and their willingness to shoot any shoplifter, ork or otherwise.

Beside the orks and the always underfoot Squigs, there were the Gretchin or Grots. While half the size of a human, they could be surprisingly vicious when cornered without the option to flee. The little scrawny runts were surprisingly smart and cunning, and unlike the Orks, they became quite obedient after she punched a few of their teeth out. At first she thought they were the ork young, but everything pointed at them being a slave race as she observed how the orks treated them. A few of them even contacted her to offer their service as spies. They were not wholly reliable, but they worked for nothing more than free food and whatever trash she gave them.

Lowest of all were the Snotlings, little green gremlins the size of a small monkey. At first these too were mistaken for young Grots, but the green little spies quickly refuted this claim with an apparent air of someone whose parentage had been greatly insulted. The Snotlings did manage to become the new stupidest species in the galaxy, ousting the Vorcha from the questionable honour of that position. The little gremlins were not even wholly sentient or able to speak, smart enough only to wear a fur rag around their waist and mimic rude hand gestures. Soon the local mercenary and pirate gangs began using them as target practice themselves, something the orks did not seem to mind at all and participated in with relish.

The orks used them also for bowling, football and other horrific treatments including emergency rations. Even the Grots jeered at them and prodded them with sticks. At first all but the most craven of Omega's denizens felt pity for the "child" aliens, but the snotlings' unfriendly attitude and tendency to bite became widely known after a few good souls have taken it upon themselves to house the little vermin, which resulted in nasty bite and claw wounds. These humanitarians quickly refocused their efforts on helping out the Grots, who had more than enough cunning to take full advantage of them. Soon Gretchin beggars were everywhere, showing white bandages that often concealed healthy limbs. The local lowlifes tried to shake down the little beggars, but they were slippery as eels and even when caught, their rusted, filth covered knives were often enough to scare away any bully who valued his eyesight.

As for the ork ship itself, it was a massive pile of scrap with engines cobbled together on one end, big guns on the other end, with smaller guns and hangars in between. That was apparent from the first visual contact. Their engines seemed to use energised toxic waste, something that should not have surprised her after getting acquainted with the barbarians. What was a total surprise was that from what long range battle footage she could gather, their craft had a shielding that apparently worked against lasers and had some sort of long range energy weapon turrets along its dorsal hull, despite the fact that most of its weaponry was a crude yet somehow effective arsenal of immense gunpowder artillery.

There were even a few odd words that she did not knew, but soon guessed their meaning. _Zog_ was clearly a curse word of some sort, while _dakka_ meant firepower, something they invariably yelled when shooting their guns. _Shooty_ and _Choppy_ were the adjectives that indicated ranged or melee prowess of a weapon. _Stompy_ was the honorific for a powerful brawler, while _git_ was the regular disparaging name they called anyone who was not an ork, Gretchin or otherwise. _Umiez_ meant humans, trukk or wagon was a vehicle, and there were many old English slang words in usage. It seemed their whole language was based on a mangled English with some words of their own language and simple sound imitation thrown in. _Waaagh_ was the universal battlecry, which any ork was happy to shout on any occasional, especially during fighting and driving. This word was always shouted, the more spittle flying, the better.

Aria wondered if she could get a hefty price for this intel from Tevos, or at least a large favour, when a shrill cry of "Boss! Boss!" interrupted her concentration. The leader of her Grot spies, Snitchit, was standing before her in his latest 'James Bond' outfit, which consisted of a thrown together suit of black dyed rags, sunglasses and a ramshackle pistol.  
"What is it?" She asked the creature, who put on a disquietingly evil smirk on his little sly face. The Gretchin decidedly had a mean streak a mile wide and were more than happy to prey on those even weaker or dumber than they were.

"Bray was bein' delerikt in his dooty again boss! I sees him eating while watchin' da security gubbins and the zogging four eyes hazn't even given me any! He needs a good pokin with da zappa prod boss!" As his name implined, Snitchit was as petty a snitch as one could find. She sighed in annoyance and glared at the little green man.  
"Is that all you can tell me?" She asked, and the nasty little goblin shivered. "Well boss, ya see, I ovaheard some of da boyz talkin' about somefink new called eeezoo. The Mekboy wants it, whateva da zog it is."

She hid her smile with a well practiced ease. So these orks were new to Element Zero. That was a piece of intel that could get a very high price indeed, if she can get the Extranet restored in time to talk with Tevos before someone else finds out and brings the news to the Council by ship.  
"Well done, Snitchit. You are a good spy after all." She moved to give the creature a few the shiny trinkets she kept around her person for just this purpose. The grot squeeled in happyness and made an insulting mockery of a salute. "Now not a single word about this to anybody else, you understand, my little friend?"

"Right boss. I got it, me lips are sealed!" The little green goblin quickly sneaked away with his reward, his head dissappearing as he reached the crowd at the floor level of the bar. Yes, this piece of intel would bring in quite the haul.

 **The Gitstompa**

"Boss, I think I figured out what makes dis eezo stuff go. It just makes stuff lighta!" Mr Nailbrain was making his report one the bridge, while Bludflagg was studying the list of the captured freighters. They have all been orkified to some degree, and he was mulling over which of his boys would be suited to captain the tiny pirate raiders.  
"How does that work?" He looked up from the readouts, the monitor trailing cables from the wall and hoisted before him by a trio of Grots.

"Zog me if I know boss, but this can make our flyers go even fasta!" Mr Nailbrain replied. "I also rummaged through some of theirz computa stuff. I believe I have found somefink. Dere is dis system of worlds called Dakka, boss, and its abandoned! Sure it is a sign from Gork to set us up a nice pirate bay!" The Mekboy explained with eager hand gestures.

"Dakka system, huh. Maybe a sign from Mork indeed. Call back the boyz and prepare da krooze for jumpin'. We'll check dis Dakka system out and see if we can get ourselves a nice warkamp goin'."

 _ **Author's Note**_ : My job keeps me from regular updates, but the story is not dead. Proofreading is slow and my time is limited but I got concepts ironed out for the next two chapters.


	13. Earth and Dakka

**The Dakka System**

Warp engines had a habit of becoming less predictable in close proximity to a star's gravity field. During the Imperium's infancy, the ships of the humans used set safe entry points at the systems' edges to warp in from system to system. As the Imperium began to know more about the Warp, these Mandeville points fell out of use with their military, only kept up by civilian ships for whom the riskier in system jumps were not necessary.

Orks never had such problems. Their ships burst in and out of the Warp at will, their ramshackle construction already dangerous enough no matter where they entered. The Gitstompa broke Warp mid system, exploding into reality in a swirl of purple-black fire only after a few hours of travel. The Weirdboys, lead by old Zapfeet have managed to guide them unerringly to their target. An uninhabited system with a rich, lush planet ripe for the plunder.

The Dakka System had five planets. Innermost was Bannik, a small rock rich in metals and minerals that boiled under its dense hothouse clouds. Next was Pragia, the lush jungle world towards which the Krooza hurtled like a comet. After it came the two gas giants, blue Alkonost and green Gamayun, the edge of the system marked by the dwarf ice world of Zirnitra and a Mass Relay.

"What's on da gitfinda, Mister Nailbrain?" Bludflagg inquired of his Mekboy while they watched the jungle world grow on the forward viewscreen.  
"Just some debris boss. Nothin' appears to be movin or havin' any juice in it." Nailbrain replied after consulting his console, upon which a wide and unknowable array of radar screens, gauges, levers, meters and graphs glew in an ever changing pattern.

"All right flyboyz! This is your chance to test our yer dakka. I want a good cozy crater cleared out for our kamp below, so if you sorry gits haven't started preparing yer planes, ya better leg it! If ya aren't out of da launch tubes in ten minutes I'm coming down and kicking you out meself!" The Kaptin yelled into the crackling intercom as the planet grew nearer and nearer.

"Why not just use da gunz, boss?" Brikkfist asked with an air of puzzlement. "Cause I don't want to trudge through lava again! Do ya want to listen to another one of Spookums's stories about lava?" The Kaptin asked his enforcer. "No boss, you sure is smart boss!" Brikkfist replied, now totally on board with the plan.

"Round up every Grot and Squig ya can find boyz! We'ze building a base!" The Kaptin yelled into the ship's intercom. Gretchin usually dwelled within tightly packed slums in the ship, working around the clock to repair any small faults they could find with their bumbling mechanic skills, and tending to all the other menial tasks. Snotlings and Squigs usually just lived where they were not under the foot of the Orks, infesting every hidden nook and cranny and fighting violently to defend it in case the ship boarded. Now the Orks began to rounding up as much of them they could to prepare for planetfall.

 **Pragia**

The fleet of Ork attack craft began to swarm as soon as the Kroozer decelerated into an orbit around Pragia like a small but ruinous little moon.

First come down the Dakkajets and the Fightas, making sure the bomber's destination was clear of any hostile threats. The former were fast, manoevarable air superiority fighters with six giant machine guns, while the latter were more durable strike fighters with packs of crude missiles for taking out ground targets of opportunity.

But nothing met them from the Jungle, and soon followed the wave of Bommas, huge aircraft laden with heavy bombs. Flashes of orange flame blasted through the jungle, blowing huge craters as the orks gleefully dropped their ordenance just for the sake of loud explosions.

The third wave consisted of Blitza Bommas and Burna Bommas, fast and small craft carrying huge bombs and racks of incindeary missiles. They blasted and burned any scrap of jungle that somehow survived the initial bombardment, and soon a good square kilometer of pockmarked landscape stood barren.

Then came the Fighta Bommas, a mix between a Fighta and a Bomma, their racks of ordenance replaced by scraps of junk which they flung downwards, planting them on the ground before flying up to the Krooza to restock. In their wake came the Landas, heavy tube like transports that landed to spill Grots, Snotlings, Orks and a every Squig that they could round up.  
The Orks began a patrol beat around the landing area, riding bikes and trukks while the gretchin began to raise the Ork's sctructures from scrap with a feverish haste that would have done any Guard field engineers proud.  
The Squigs and Snotlings began to roam, ranging around the area and spreading the spores that all Orkoid kind shred. Squiggoths rampaged around the perimeter, followed by hunting Squigs to take on any wildlife foolish enough to show its face.

A few of the local Varrens brave or just too foolish to run away from the sound of high explosives soon became dinner for the rampaging swarm of teeth on legs, while the Grots toiled ceaselessly to build what they could. Fortified boxes of huts and hovels rose first, and as the Meks got to work Waaagh! Towers began to rise. These were impressive sentry posts with a giant billboards spray painted with the Orks' favourite word, to be illuminated by a shoddy array of lightbulbs or neon tubes. Turrets began to rise atop of the assembled structrues as gretchin welded, screwed and duct taped shootas to wherever they found the most flashy.

After a few hours, Mek's workshops and garages began to appear alongside the Orks' 'gunpile' stockpiles of weapons, as well as whatever industrial capacity the Orks needed. Smeltries, workshops, breweries, grot hovels, squig pens and radio stations rose from the small aglomeration of ramshackle, rusty metal buildings that were fast becoming a small city. The industry of the Orks was as quick as it was unreliable.

Power generators utilizing power sources as varied as they were unstable were started just as Flakk cannons were erected to protect the sky above. Lights began to shine in the little pirate city, powering up an array of light bulbs and searchlights that flooded the buildings in patches of yellow light.  
Ork eyesight was rather bad at range, but had slightly better night vision than humans. The flashes of illumination that would only light up patches of the streets for humans were more than enough light for the short sighted Orks to fight in.

Boyz were driving thick metal posts into the ground with their superhuman strength around the city as the Meks directed the raising of defenses. Grots welded thick metal plates between the posts, setting up a rampant where Orks could shoot downwards against any intruder. Pillboxe were anchored into place, filled with Zapp cannons, Lobba mortars, Kannons, Deffguns and Traktor beams to bring down anybody foolish enough to try an assault on Ork territory. Wide gates were mounted with spiked doors that could admit even the gargantuan Squiggoths and Gorkanauts, covered by Burnas set into the gateposts.

In the center was rising a great fortress with walls as tall as a battle titan, covered by spiked gunboxes sporting as powerful weapons as usually seen on Morkanauts. Giant plasma blasters, huge Dakka cannons and gabing mawed ordenance defended air and ground with the Ork's typical brutality, heavy plates turning the top of the building into a landing pad. This would be the Kaptin's Pirate Palace, as flash and deadly as any Warbosses's fortress, and it will be fully operational in a day or two, its four guard towers sporting the Orks' powerful if unsteady energy shields. If those were given enough power, they could even protect the whole camp from a milder bombardment.

The Kaptin descended in his customised heavy flander after another five hours have passed, a powerful, brutal gunship with a spiked prow, oversized engines and a giant kannon turret mounted where a mast would be on an old ship of sea. When it landed on the top of his Palace, the laughed and bashed the side of his Power Cutlass against a Flakk Kannon emplacement.

 _"Welcome to Gorktuga, boyz! We'ze gonna make dis da greatest, meanest, tuffest and richest pirate bay this zogging galaxy ever knew!"_ His boyz all climbed up to the top of their ramshackle huts, thrusting choppas into the sky. " _ **WAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!**_ "

 **The Solar System, inner sphere**

The Normandy entered the Solar System with its usual swift grace, and slid once again into FLT mode to fly towards the blue-green orb of the third planet. A few minutes behind came the Retribution, tearing a hole through reality deep between the orbits of Mars and Earth. The local forces have been warned of its unorthodox method of entry, but still the vision of the gargantuan ship appearing out of a swirling vortex took all observers back.

 **Aboard the SSV Normandy**

"We have clearance to land, Commander." Came Joker's voice over the intercom. "All right, take us in to Vancouver." Shepard was standing in her dress uniform on the command deck, surrounded by the tree hulking figures as the ship neared Earth. They remained unmoved so far, showing an icy control that she knew comes to humans when they are holding themselves back. Of course applying such a human concept to these beings was not always accurate.

"We need to verify this. Wait while I contact my ship, Commander." Came the rambling voice of the Captain, and she nodded. He switches to a private vox channel to the Retribution. "Brother Martellus. Scan the system and tell me if this is a trickery. We can afford no mistakes here."

 **Aboard the bridge of the Retribution**

Martellus initiated the augur arrays and they swept over the system. Tech-adepts and servitors poured over the data connected to the cogitator system, analyzing every scrap transmitted from the varied sensors that dotted the hull of the Strike Cruiser.

"By the Throne..." He whispered as the data began to align to those of Holy Terra and its sacred system of Sol, deeply imprinted into every ship in Imperium space. Radiation, planetary orbits, radius, elemantal composition... everything was a perfect match, or a perfect match to Terra as it has been thousands of years ago. The only difference was of course, the planets. They lacked the Imperial hives, showing a natural state that the Sol system has not experienced since the beginning of the Dark Age of Technology. "It is Terra." He broadcasted to the Captain, and to all the Sergeants.

"Grace of the Emperor..." Avitus muttered while Cyrus added "The Inquisition will have their job cut out for them to figure out what to do."

Tarkus shook his head. "Light of the God-Emperor, another Terra? Does that mean... another." He could not finish the sentence. The very concept was heresy, blasphemy, an impossibility against the natural order of the universe.

"No, Brother Sergeant. He has not been duplicated. I can sense no psyker emmissions of any force from the planet, and even in a weakened state, His nearness would be like a supernova." The calm voice of Jonah reassured all of them, their double heartbeats slowing down from the conflict that enveloped their minds.

"This is still a problem, a grave one. Holy Terra, yet not Terra. Old Earth. Place of ancient legends and ancient mistakes." Aramus's awe came through the vox, even the indomitable Captain touched by the gravity of the situation. "If it is Earth, it is holy." Thaddeus added, something none of them could deny.

 **Vancouver, Earth**

The Kodiak had taken Shepard, Garrus and Tali down to the surface to accompany the three crimson giants. The Thunderhawk slid out of the tiny landing bay and settled into a geostationary orbit above the city, hanging far above in the skies like a winged brick.

When it landed on the outskirts of the damaged city, Shepard and her teammates were the first to disembark. The Astartes seemed almost hesitant as they slowly jumped off the Kodiak, their heavy feet sending a shockwave through the concrete beneath. They looked around, but this time it seemed that scanning for threats was only a secondary objective. _Like pilgrims at a holy site_ , she thought to herself. They walked around slowly, taking it all in and scanning the damaged structures, no doubt in order to guess at whatever type of weaponry was deployed here.

Aramus looked around himself in a strange mix of awe and disillusion, shaken by the strange feeling it all evoked in him. This was a pristine world, a Terra with green hills, blue skies and oceans, yet it was barely an imperial world, with its pathetic cities. The lack of order and discipline offended him just as the significance of the planet pulled at the core of his being. It was Terra, yet it was a disorganised backwater. Rubble lay everywhere around the tiny city and its alien curves evoked none of the familiarity even the meekest of imperial cities would have provided.

The humans and aliens, a thought that almost set him into a killing spree, wandered around aimlessly in the afternoon sun. Even the xenos managed to look pathetic and beaten. The only thing of note was the antigravitic cars flying around. Sleek and assymetrical, their alien outline never the less failed to hide the impressiveness of such an engineering feat. The filtered air smelled of rubble and industry, tinged with the scent of humans living in too close proximity as well as lesser scents of xenoforms and a faint tinge of waste from a nearby and ruptured sevage pipe.

"The planet is beautiful. The legends do not do it justice." Thaddeus's voice came over the radio.  
"Yet this city is a pathetic shamble. The Ordos will have a field day sorting this problem out." He replied, while Jonah remained silent, as if using his psyker's gifts to scry the land. They followed the human and her alien compatriots into the city, their mighty forms drawing an awed murmur from whatever citizen saw them, human or otherwise. Some of the children scattered, running back to whatever temporal shelter they had been given. Some of the adults cheered at Shepard, but most were too taken aback by such a glorious sight of the Emperor's Finest that they barely managed to notice the human woman.

She had been showing the giants the city for around two hours when the first sniper round hit the dirt where the Captain stood only a split second before. But suddenly, he was just not there, standing a meter afar with his shielded pistola arm raised in the blink of an eye, the gun roaring with its thunder. The civilians that did not scatter as the first shot hit, did now at the booming retort of the weapon.

"Ambush and treachery!" The giant bellowed as a rocket took him in the shield, knocking him back a little but otherwise doing little damage against the flare of energy the heavy plated shield brough to existence. Multiple snipers were laying down a cover of suppressing fire while others joined in with heavy weapons and rapid fire rifles. "Take cover!" She yelled as a few shots impacted her shields and threw herself behind a fallen piece of masonry.  
She scanned the nearby ruins and saw what appeared to be a couple of batarians hiding behind cover. A trio of Krogan mercenaries charged out from a nearby alley towards the Captain. The giant turned to them, suddenly fast as bolt of lightning and slammed his sword to his shield in a challange.

"I am Death!" A metallic roar merged with the blast of his pistol, and a mercenary went down, his chest in ribbons. "I am Fearless!" As the remaining two reached him, one was sent instantly flying by a bash of the heavy shield, a flare of energy erupting as the energy fields collided. "I am invincible!" The final roar came with a slash of the giant sword, too fast for her eyes to follow. The last Krogan was suddenly in two halves, crushing onto the concrete in a shover of blood and organs. She stared, the slaughter had taken only four seconds, and yet she felt that the giant was toying with the attackers. A blast of electronic overloard sizzled around the Batarians as Tali overloaded their shields and Garrus pinned them down with a couple of well placed shots.

Bolts of lightning leapt from Jonah's fingers, and the trio of Vorcha trying to flank here became a pile of charred, exploded flesh. She raised her gun and charged the Batarians, trusting in her kinetic barrier and the bellowing giant that was taking up the aliens' attention as it charged another squad of their comrades, hacking them to pieces with inhumanly fast blows. A roar of engines announced a pair of Mantis Gunships bearing down on them. Who were the aliens and how did they manage to get so much firepower so fast? Her thoughts raced as they opened fire on the Captain, forcing him to hold his shield up as mass accelerated machine gun fire sent the power field into a flurry of blue sparks.

The Librarian raised his staff and a blue barrier sprang into being to intercept the flurry of missiles from the gunship. Thaddeus powered up his jetpack, a crimson missile thundering through the barrage as he fired his energy pistol mid flight. A blue ball of incandescent plasma struck the Gunship, its shields dying out as the superhot matter burned into its hull. The jetpacked giant slahed out with his giant axe, and a great rent was torn in its side. The other gunship kept up its fire on the shield even as she reached the Batarians, sending a biotic shockwave towards them and flinging them sideways before opening fire with her Saber, the heavy slugs punching through the stunned aliens' armour. She rolled back into cover as they regained their composure, her barriers and shields getting dangerously low as shots grazed against her form.

She heard the wreckage of the axed Mantis hitting the ground somewhere nearby and raised her rifle to fire again, just as Jonah suddenly burst into being amidst the Batarians. He was... just there, in a golden flash, as if he teleported. She blinked as the eagle-crowned staff was brought down to the concrete, cracking it and sending a shockwave of crimson fire radiating from the ancient warrior. The Batarians' charred remains were flung around, yet the flames passed around her, giving off no heat.

Shepard looked up to see the second Gunship erupt in flames as two brilliant blue beams of energy struck it, its scant remains raining down on them as the Thunderhawk slowed into view, Thaddeus's squad deploying from its front ramp to land in the combat with the force of a meteor shower. Pistols thundered and the last of the enemy fell to the ground, usually in gory chunks of blasted flesh.

"Shepard! Tali has been wounded!" Garrus's voice came over the comm. _Oh God no... Tali!_ she rush to the crouched form of the Quarian laying next to a pile of rubble, worry making the world spin around her.  
"Bosh'tets caught me off guard." Relief flooded her as she heard Tali over the comm, seeing her clutch at a wounded shoulder. She pried away her hand in order to apply the emergency Medi-gel with her Omni-Tool.

"Doctor Chakwas, we'll be bringing Tali to the Normandy. Some bastard shot her in the shoulder!" She looked up to see Jonah and the Captain towering over her, and her heart skipped a beat.

"Shepard. The truth, now." The Captain's voice was a low metallic whisper and before she could utter a word, Jonah pushed an extended index finger to her temple and the front of the Captain's helmet. The world went black.

 **Dholen Sytem**

Haestrom's sun was red giant which had baffled astronomists across the galaxy with its enigmatic behavior. The Geth had tried in vain to uncover its secrets for a century.

Deep inside the star's corona, a humanoid shape swam on the tides of plasma. Its billowing, cloaked figure absorbed the star's energy, draining it of its power as the god as old as the universe feasted. The Eldar knew it as Kaelis Ra, the Necrontyr had called it Aza'gorod and the Imperium had called it the Nightbringer. Yet to the inhabitants of this new universe, it was known only as the Grim Reaper. It had shifted between dimensions after its defeat at the hands of Uriel Ventris. It was not yet strong enough to face the Stormlord and make the treacherous Necron Dynasties pay for their rebellion. The pathetic little creatures have torn parts off it, but they could never truly shatter a being like it.

Its eyes glowed under its hood with a lambent green fire as old and distand as dying stars. It had feasted on Dholen for centuries, the hidden worm eating away at the heart of the apple. Soon it will have the power to call back the Bringer of Darkness again, and with it, the Necrons still loyal to him, from its prison in a microverse reality.

When that time came, this universe would be harvested, and then it would return to his home universe and the Necrontyr would be the first to feel its wrath.

Author's notes:

Sorry for the delayed chapter. My last job had me very busy, hopefully this new one will be better.

Replies:  
The Expendable Joe:

She will do her best to contain the Orks, but Orks by their very nature are zany and unstable creatures! But she may find out that fancy hats are great bargaining chips!

Gyvon:

I'll try to pace it better. I'm not a native English speaker, so my literary English novel writing skills are not that great and I write this story after work when I'm tired. I apologize for this.

I know the Blood Ravens have a pure geneseed, though with a mutated Catalepsean node that makes them totally unsleeping. But that seems more like one of Cawl's improvements than a mutation.

Where did I mention the Red Thrist or Black Rage? If I did it is an error, I know they are Thousand Sons successors. I'll correct that instantly.


	14. A meeting of minds

**Captain Aramus**

A sense of displocation so strong that it made him experience a vertigo that he could no longer feel in the flesh took hold of the Captain's mind as the Librarian's power flowed around him, letting his mind touch hers. He barred the gates to the fortress of his mind, using psycho indoctrinated conditioning and posthuman willpower to shield his mind from her senses. A moment of pause followed as the Captain doubted this course of action for a short amount of time that meant no time at all in real space, before he drove into her past.

The apartment block was a filthy, run down hole in the nameless ghetto. Its walls stank of old smoke and sweat even to his now blunted senses and a few dirty lumen strips casted their unnaturally white glow on the decrepit interiot. Chairs and a worn leather couch pockmarked and scarred with ilho-stick burns and the tear of old age crowded the room alongside various coloured wrappers that must have contained food.

Without meaning to, he got up and walked to the small and no less untidy lavatory room, where he looked on the cracked mirror to find the face of a sixteen-ish girl staring back at him with blue eyes and a mane of unruly red hair.  
His frame felt light, even lighter than what little he rembered of his own adolescent years, and he looked over the toilet, stained already by the time he.. no, she and the rest of the Tenth Street Reds holed up in it after the previous owner abandoned. She remembered throwing up in it last night, after getting way too drunk when the gang held a celebration for their latest robbery with plentiful bottles of cheap swill.

The Captain watched through her eyes as she went to the cabinet to brush her teeth, the toothbrush's handle broken. One of the pictographs stuck to the mirror's edge showed a much younger Shepard, and at her side a taller, lanky boy around half a decade her senior. _John Shepard, Alliance Military Captain_ , came the thought from the recesses of the Commander's mind.  
Her brother who have joined up with the Alliance so that they both had something to eat after the orphanage was shut down. Now a Captain with his own dreadnought, the SSV Saratoga, handsome and a paragon whose loyalty and honour all Alliance officers could look up to for example. The big brother that kept sending her a substantial part of his paycheck even after she fell in with the Reds. Not that she ever said a word about that in the time before she too joined the service.

The memory-fragment finished brushing her teeth and washed the grime off her face. A juvinile troublemaker, not unlike countless millions of underhive scum that inhabited the many city-worlds of the Imperium. The Captain knew better than to judge her based solely on that, since was not Thaddeus a gang leader in the Underhive?

His train of thought was interrupted when a gangly young man yelled in from the door. Even his thoughts were slowed in the mental landscape, adjusted to the levels of what her mortal frame sustained. "Jane! Get your sorry ass out of your beauty pallour and grab your gun! We're gonna nail ourself some rich alien asshole and we'll be set for this month!"

"Stop yelling Finch! You are going to wake the whole place you fucking idiot!" Came her reply as she rummaged around for a gun and a spare ammo package. It was an old autopistol that was as outdated in the Imperium as it was in the Alliance. She began covering her short trousers and tank top with a dirty overall, and the memory faded as the Captain's interest faded. How banal was the existence of mortals. Truly the Blood Ravens have saved him from a life of dreary existence.

 **Commander Shepard**

One moment she was standing looking up at the Captain, then the world was enveloped by a black mass. She could not think nor move, or even feel her body. It was as if she existed as a living thought, a consciousness bereft of its mortal coil. She struggled to move limbs that did not exist, furiously punching the blackness with nothing. Her rage and fury warred with her confusion. _What the hell did they do to her?_

After a few minutes, or at least if felt like, she calmed down enough to realise this was something akin to the meld with Liara. Not the same, but a still a meeting of minds. She began to struggle for what felt like aeons, searching for even the barest fragment of meaning in the black void. A subtle feeling of pressure came upon her from time to time, as if her amorphous body was somehow plastered against a wall. But she did not, could not give up. She started to feel around the pressure, looking for a way in.

Dazzling light and sound came through a dense medium, as if underwater as she slowly found a new world dawning before her eyes. It was a world unlike any other, a world of horrible magnificence that stunned her into silence. Giant, gothic skyscrapers towered so far into the sky that they were lost from sight, their sides decorated by golden light and macabre statues of skulls, eagles, skeletons or a mix of all three. Arched bridges connected the towers like tiny strings, yet she could see that the closest one was big enough for the Destiny Ascencion to land on, had it been ever capable of that.

The crowd around her was just as strange and outlandish as the gothic-industrial landscape with its cyclopean immensity. People in thick robes flowed around her, their faces pale and hair often completely shaven. She noticed the man holding her hand, but she felt nothing but reassurence as his father smiled down at her, his lined face masking the fear that his eyes held. "It will be all right son. We'll find a new home in the stars. Be brave and strong, for your mother is watching us from the Emperor's side."

"It is not fair, father! They are the criminals, not us! How can they get away with it? Why doesn't the Emperor smite them for their wickedness?" She heard her own voice, but it was not her voice. It was the voice of a young boy with faded memories of a pale woman who died in an accident and the the investigation that resulted in the outrage that had sent them into exile. The local Imperial Sprocketworks was laundering its funds into golden statues for its own executives, cutting budges for safety regulations and the common worker's salary. A crime that had cost her... or his, mother her life and set the underworld's rabid bounty hunters upon their backs.

"Life is not fair, son. The galaxy is a cruel place, and you'll need to get used to it. Trust in the Emperor and he will provide." He said as they walked towards the nearest lift. A priest garbed in morbid robes clutched a gold plated skull, standing on a mechanical, four legged carriage. His words of prayer droned endlessly, broken only by devotional shakings of his bony treasure. A giant spaceship floated over them as she looked up, easily the size of Sovereign yet still dwarved by the immense towers that filled the sky until the endless layers of smog obscured them from her sight.

The memory jumped to a building high above the smog cloud, in a clearing a hundred square kilometers wide. She could see a tiny part of the sky now between the limitless towers and she tried to make out the giant, blocky forms that swarmed over the planet with such density that most of the stars were blotted out. Her... no, his father grabbed hold of her hand with one hand, the other holding what meager possessions he had time to salvage as they walked towards a lander. It was the size of the Normandy, but there was nothing elegant or sleek about it. It was a blunt, ungainly thing that was little more than a cargo hold fitted with a few turrets, engines, a cockpit and rudimentary life support.

Grim faced man with large, intimidating rifles herder them to the cargo hold, where her father pushed and squeezed their way to a porthole, receiving a few elbow strikes for his troubles. He hoiseted her up onto his neck and she felt a slight lurch as the lander began to accelerate. Loud klaxons blared and red lights strobed, but she... or the child that the Captain must have been, could not tear his eyes from the reinforced window.

The city fell away endlessly, gargantuan statues and shield generators giving way for communication dishes and skyward facing turrets as the lander made its way into space, the glistening spires finally falling away from the impossibly vast city that she knew was the endless Hive World of Holy Terra, home to a hundred trillion souls and throne world of the Imperium of Mankind. How she knew this, she could not tell. Perhaps she would have to ask Liara, if she ever got back alive into the flesh.

Her thoughs trailed back to the scene as the giant warships came in size, some almost a third of the Citadel's lenght. A Strike Cruiser, almost the same a the Retribution but in vivid yellow gave her the scale of the vessels. They were a mix of chatedral, brick, ancient naval vessel and locomotive all in one, their proud, armoured prows embalzoned with eagles and skulls, their sides dotted with giant cannon maws and their spines covered in turrets. The smallest ones were still a kilometer long, and they all circled the planet in apparent readiness, their turrets tracking the civilian trafic.

 _What manner of Empire could make such a fleet, or even need such a fleet?_ Her mind baulked at the sheer size and power of the vast armada that she could see, and she knew that the whole planet must have been surrounded by these terrible leviathans. Their brutal forms radiated a dark potency that filled her with a sense of foreboding and fear. These were not the ships of the Humanity she knew. These were the ships of a conquering warrior species, chatedrals of war made to bring ruin and death to all those that opposed the Imperial rule.

 **Captain Aramus**

He felt the mental landscape obey his will, and watched through her eyes as the young Shepard applied to the Alliance as soon as she turned eighteen. No more crime, no more firefights, ragged clothes and a final good bye to that rat infested ghetto. He observed the aspects of the standard training regiment, something akin in quality to what most PDF forces went through, but with its focus more around boarding and city combat than open, armoured warfare. The young Jane excelled, the deprivations of her youth giving her an edge and allowed her access to the latest biotic implants. Soon she was serving as a marine, an term that harkened back to the ancient naval days of Terra, much to the pride of her elder brother.

It was John who suggested the N7 training, and Jane was all too happy to apply. No one would ever have the power to treat her like gutter scum, she would make sure of that. The training was brutal even for her, but for the Captain in the memory, it was nothing but a shadow compared to his own. While superior to the training of the Imperial Guard, very few of the N7 recruits would have survived the Schola Progenium, and most likely none would have gotten through the Blood Trials. More than one time the young woman came close to failiure, and even death, but she always managed to prevail. Either with skill, cunning, or sheer bloody minded will to succeed.

All of it came crashing down at Torfan. An underground fortress of the vile, four eyed Batarian slavers. A degenerate and worthless breed of xenos, if he was any judge, and being an Astartes meant being the judge and executioner of entire alien species. The memory was livid, if incoherent. Adrenaline coursed through Shepard's veins, making the battle into a nightmarish mess of jolting images. Biotic slam, rifle fire, dead batarians and blood made up her world. The tunnels were narrow and so badly lit that at many times her helmet had to cycle to infra-red. Her men fell in ever increasing number, but she drove them to push on with a ruthlessness and dedication that would have made a Commissar proud. In the end, they overwhelmed the Batarians. Some tried to surrender, nor Shepard nor her men had any mercy left to give, and the Captain felt himself smile.

The Butcher of Torfan, they would call her. So began her bloody rise to fame, and he watched in fascination as her battles sped past his eyes to her eventual nomination as a Spectre.

 **Commander Shepard**

She found herself, or rather, the young Aramus, on a dusty, desert world. His father had settled them down on Calderis, a training outpost with a low mineral output and only noteworthy because the Adeptus Astartes held it under their aegis. _The Adeptus Astartes, the Angels of Death! The Emperor's own flesh and blood, the eternal guardians of Mankind. What would it be to meet such a holy being, sancitifed war made flesh?_ She remembered him thinking about the Space Marines when they arrived on the dusty, desolate ball of dirt. But soon that gave way to the simple and pure existence that he and his father craved out for themselves, assisting the mining operations that the small local cartels funded in the nearby mountain range.

She felt the heavy stones break under the tip of her pickaxe and the sweat roll down her, or rather his, body. His father was an aging factory overseer, but the only job he could find was in the mins, and he was hard pressed to meet the quotas that the overseers placed on them. Many times his bones broke, and many times the ruthless tinpot magnates have cut his meager pay in half. As soon as he was twelve and strong enough to lift a pick, he joined his father in the mines. The air was dusty and fetid, but his muscles began to grow thick and corded like steel as the years went on.

Their simple and hard life had settled into a comforting monotonity that existed of getting up early, eating stale bread and working in the mines until the sun came down. It all seemed to go well until the day his father met his fate. It was a malfunctioning mining charge, the local and few Arbites have said. The cartels had been buying it from the local maleteks instead of the Tech-Adept sanctioned imports and the devices were prone to malfunctions.

She felt more outraged than the young Aramus, who silently grieved for his father. The mines had collapsed, and the cartels fired him without any compensation. Her fury was hot at such blatant injustice, but there was nothing to do. In this galaxy or any other, the rich trod over the poor. As on Calderis, so on Terra or even her own Earth. The fifteen years old boy just walked into the city center after attending what looked like a church mass, seeking a new vocation. The memories were incomplete and dulled, as if it was not the Captain who lived them, but a previous reincarnation.

The memory jumped a few days later. Calderis was in flames. She found himself kneel behind a piece of rubble, watching as the Orks charged the local militia. Green skinned, hulking brutes with a thick fungal reek and a loping primate gait lept at the humans hiding behind blasted rubble. Their rifles shot crimson beams of light that burned wide channels into the green flesh, but the aliens shrugged it off so easily that even a Krogan would have been amazed.  
They hacked with rusted cleavers and axes, their movements jerky and almost too fast for the eye to follow as the men became little more than butchered chunks of meat. Putrid fetishes of rotting meat hang from the Orks' belts, their slavering and tusk filled mouths watering at the scent of fresh blood.

The youth waited in hiding as the orks looted through the corpses and took the occasional bite, until the sound of gunfire sent them loping once again into the distance, their animalistic grunts making her think that this was all just a fun boys' night out for the monsters. As the orks rampaged out of earshot, he crawled from his cover to recover what little the greenskins have left. A few grenades and lasguns, but more than nothing. Jane felt his muscles tense as if they were own, the years of back breaking labour giving them a strength that most adults on civilised, nice Earth had lacked even in their adult years.

She had a wavering impression of stalking throught the city and throwing a grenade at a gaggle of small green things that she could not call anything else but goblins. The screeching little gremlins were blasted to pieces, their thick, darker than human blood staining the sand red. She saw an Ork tank rumble from a distance, its turrets spewing hails of explosive bullets at an unseen target. At one point she, _no, he,_ she reminded herself, crept into the shell of an abandoned guard tower. The soldiers laid blooded and broken and she felt himself move up on the blood slick stairs, almost falling once after stepping on spilt entrails.

"I'll gonna eat ya an' wipe me ass with yer fancy cape!" Peering over the rim of the bunker's blasted side, she saw two hulking figures locked in mortal combat and surrounded by a score of dead Orks. One was a greenskin twice the size of all others she had seen, the other a figure clad in the now familiar red powered armour. The Ork was wielding a giant chainsaw axe in one hand, a spiked maul in the other, while the Space Marine held a glowing, long bladed sword.

"By my fury you shall know the Emperor's name!" The Space Marine's armour was ornate, his regal bearing tempering the look of utter rage on his face as he lunged at the giant brute with his word held high. The ork barely brought up his hammer in time, orange sparks flaring it as the sword clashed against its with blue glow. A series of thrusts and parries followed at a rate that no human could watch, a dozen blows exchanged every second. The Ork's axe was cloven in two by the gleaming blade, apparently lacking whatever protection the hammer had. But the battle was far from over, and the Hammer came crashing down before the Marine could reposition his blade.

She saw a vivid red spray of blood crystallize mid air as the red armour was sundered. She felt his outrage at such blasphemy. Space Marines were never defeated in battle! He began hauling the nearby autocannon towards the breach in the tower's wall. The Orks' fire had dislodged it, but its simple and robust design had kept it from harm. She heard the Ork gloat again and felt his fury. "Not so fast now, stoopid humie! Lets see how ya do if I tear yer little 'ead off!"

Empowered by a rush of adrenaline and grim conviction, the youth pushed the cannon into position and sighted down the barrel just as the Ork raised its giant hammer to the sky. She felt him push the trigger and the gun bucked like a wild horse. The first show exploded the brute's shoulder but the rest went wide upwards, raking the buildings behind the Ork boss. Not even his prodigious strength could keep the weapon's recoil at bay, but this distraction was all that the Marine needed.

Swifter than a striking snake, the wounded Astartes lashed out with his glowing sword and the Ork fell down beside him, his legs cut as if they were made out of air. The marine rose up with a silent grimace of pain, a huge, cracked dent encrusted with clotted blood. He was much smaller than before, and the wound would have no doubt sent any human to a lingering death as crushed ribs impaled ruptured organs. But he was not human, not any more, and he quickly stomped on the back of the Ork's head, pushing the yelling brute's face into the rock until the skull broke.

The noble Space Marine nodded to him in thanks, even though no mortal should have been able to see that clearly. She felt his arm move into an amateurish but very eager salute, before the youth took to the cannon once more as guttural shots rang across the streets, hoping the divine angel would not mind if he helped him out in his wounded state by thinning the mob out a little.

 **Captain Aramus**

He had witnessed Shepard and her fight against Saren and his vile xenos Geth, the augmented Turian warlord who sold his life to the mechanical abomination of the Reapers and their elder menace. The loss of Kaidan and Anderson that cut into her soul deeply and the destruction of the first Normandy.  
He had seen the suicide mission under Cerberus and the spiral of madness that sent the once noble organisation into the depths of the foulest heresy and finally servitude to the Reapers and that final fight against them over the devastated Earth.

He tried to skip through the romantic encounters of the fiery haired woman, but still ended up knowing way too much about Asari, Turian and Quarian biology than what was good for the sanity and sanctity of his soul. The Commander's flings with men, women and even aliens was a source of endless horror far graver than the new yet familiar threat of the Reapers, and he felt his stomachs tighten with the urge to vomit.  
Human reproduction was one necessary thing, the Commander's disgusting antics something else and fouler entirely and he felt as dirty as if he had to pick up and use a Traitor Legionary's Warp-soiled weapon.

Never the less he was Astartes, and he faced down Ulkair of the Plague God and survived to tell the tale. Not even the rampant xenophilia of the infidel woman could compare to the endless horror of Nurgle's chosen. Slowly he went through her combat encounters, absorbing all he could about the technology, tactics, strategies and biology of these miriad new xenos, knowing that every scrap of information was useful.

 **Commander Shepard**

Gabriel Angelos had stood over her as they strapped him down into the implantation slab, his injuries already healed from his fight with the Ork warboss. She had witnessed the brutal arenas and physical screening of the Blood Trials and felt her, or rather his, hands still wet with the blood of all the rivals he had slain for this honour. The cowled form of a white armoured Apothecary approached, injecting the Aspirant's neck with a chemical solution that caused paralysis but did nothing to dull the pain as his blades began to work.

The memories were getting more fragmented now, partially shielded behind the Captain's iron will. She recalled the agony of eyes being pulled from their sockets, of ears being drilled out and ribcage fractured.  
The wracking agony as poisons and lethal death world plagues were introduced into the chamber to test her to the limit, the pain unlike anything she had ever know.  
New organs were implanted into his body, and the place where the holy Gene-seeds had been placed was still tender and oddly ticklish yet numb as the sacred flesh of the Emperor Himself reworked his DNA on the cellural level to make him into something more than human.

She looked up into the skull masked face of Chaplain Prathios, the ancient warrior priest levelling a bolt pistol at her head, its barrel gaping like a maw of a primordial beast in her torment wracked mind. "Do you want the pain to end?" The metallic growl of the helmet-augmented voice cut through the pain.

"I want to serve." Came the reply, in a voice much deeper than the boy's own had been. The voice of a man, the voice of a Space Marine. The Chaplain lowered his weapon and the Apothecary approached, bearing the bio-plastic strips of the Black Carapace. She felt blades cut into her skin and lost consciousness.

Fragments drifted by her. Images as a Scout under the long haired and melancholy Cyrus, wielding a L ascannon as a Devastator tosnipe out Tau flier from the air, cleaving the frail bodies of the Eldar with a Chainsword as an Assault Marine, immolating a mob of Orks with a Plasma Gun as a Tactical Marine.  
That flawless assault on a heretical artillery base in the mountains that had seen him elevated to the rank of Captain at the young, tender age of only two hundred.  
The brutal Aurelian Crusade against Orks, Eldar, Tyranids and then the vile Traitor Marines of the Black Legion, where a daemon took hold of Jonah's body.

It was too much. Even the barest fragments were of a hyper accelerated existence, and a singular cocktail of hate, fury and faith that surged through her mind with such a vitality that no human mind was meant to experience.  
Such an existence was far above what a mortal could take, and it sent her mind back into the black oblivion for respite lest she loose her mind.

 **Earth**

The mental link had only taken half a minute, yet Jonah leaned on his staff in exhaustion as the Captain broke the link. Aramus staggered and shook his head, as if awakening from a vivid nightmare.

Jane fell to her knees beside Tali and threw up, her entire body shaking from the experience and a newfound terror. She now knew what kind of men these Blood Ravens were, and they were not men at all.


	15. Arrival of the Machine

**Aboard the Retribution, in Earth orbit**

"Well at least we know she is not lying." Ventured Thaddeus as the Captain had returned to debrief his sergeants after the fateful encounter with the xenos threat. The mood was at once elevated because it was always a holy cause to kill the alien, yet the Commander's story could no longer be doubted. She was not lying and the astrological data backed her up. Even those systems named after Terra that were encountered during the Great Crusade bore only a passing resemblance, not the total match they found here.

"With all due respect Brother Captain, how sure can we be if that the heretic had not just fooled you both?" Avitus was as always, the one to suspect treachery. The news did not at all please the warlike Devastator Sergeant who had longed to bathe this befouled world in plasma fire.

"It was genuine." Jonah replied, still somewhat leaning on his Force staff. The psychic communion had lasted only for a short while but it had drained the Librarian more than a week's worth of constant warfare would.

"Let the Inquisition worry about that. We will make our report and the Ordos will decide what to do." Tarkus replied in line with his always pragmatic manner, not letting it show how disturbed he was by the implications of an alternate reality Terra.

"Just do not let her touch you with her bare hands. You do not want to know where those had been." Aramus replied with a look of disgust on his face. Facing Ulkair, Greater Daemon of Nurgle was much worse, but this was almost as horrible because it was just so mundane. The Commander was not a being of unnatural sorcery, just a regular human woman.

His stomachs tried to rebel again, a feat many enemies of the Imperium would envy the Commander for inducing. The memory of being mortal once more was of course not a welcome feeling either. The slowness, the greyness and the pathetic nature of her frail body only reinforced the Captain's belief in the superiority of the Astartes. They were Scions of the God Emperor, and he gave a fresh mental prayer in thanks for the might his sire had granted him.

"Does she not wash her hands?" Thaddeus asked, all innocence. The Captain looked more awkward than any of his fellow officers had seen him before, and his tanned skin got just the slightest tinge of green.

"Her tolerance for xenos is vile indeed, for she views them in the same light as she would a human." The Captain replied in an evasive manner and Avitus gagged and made a face as if he had just bitten a Nurgling, and Tarkus made the sign of the Aquila.

"Well the Ordo Xenos will love that little information." Cyrus commented in a light tone, but his brothers could see that the Deathwatch veteran shivered with disgust.

"Even she could not be that naive, right?" Thaddeus was more shocked by the very notion than disturbed, while Martellus muttered about the weakness of the flesh.

"The less said about that, the better. We have enough theological problems without her vile philosophy to consider." To the relief of all posthumans, the Captain moved on to other matters concerning the Xenos attack and did not fully explain the roots of his newfound disgust, so that they might be spared from the twisting feeling in his guts.

 **Earth, later that night at Commander Shepard's residence**

Tali woke to the Commander lurching upright in the bed and screaming like a damned soul in the middle of the night. Her wound still ached yet she instantly turned on the lights with her Omni-Tool and fussed over Shepard.

"Jane, what is wrong?" She shook the human's shoulder until she stopped screaming and stared around in amazement. It had been half a day after the fateful psychic trial and sweat coated her pyjama top and shorts.

"I... I saw what he was fighting. How he was fighting. Just fragments of it... but oh God, it was beyon words." Tali felt Shepard's whole body shaking and hugged her against her exo suit until some of the terror fled from her posture.

"I saw flashes of battlefields filled with torn corpses, a chitinous horde of monsters from nightmare and planets blown to dust. Not just bombarded, but blown apart." Her chest rose and fell rapidly as the human hugged Tali back, tears rolling down her face.

"Keelah! It will be all right, Jane. You have me and you have the whole team. We won't let anybody take you again." Tali tried to squeeze Shepard's hands, but the too many fingers of the human coiled around her own like a vice.

"I saw him tear apart a dozen humans with a chainsaw sword in a second. I was him, and I felt righteous joy as I massacred some helpless rebels. I felt what it was to be him. To be one with your armour, to feel the rage of your gun, to feel the power and vitality of a ... demigod. I felt like I could conquer the universe and not break a fucking sweat! I tore through concrete with my fists and it felt like ripping a sheet of paper. I saw with the eyes of an eagle and I moved at a speed that is beyond my comprehension."

Her body quivered and she nuzzled closer to Tali. "God, I know why they move with that damned deliberate slowness out of combat. They need that restraint... for the sake of their surroundings! A fraction more of their strength and any human shaking hands with them would have the hand sheared off!"

Tali was unsure if she felt more frightened for Shepard or of the giants. Jane's voice was almost hysterical with fright and in a desperate attempt to calm her, she took off her mask to kiss her cheek. "It is all right Jane. You united a galaxy, you can keep them civil. _I know you can_."

"Tali... I touched his mind as we parted. He is no mortal creature... he is a weapon, a weapon without sin. At least without sin by his reckoning. There is nothing to him beside his duty to his Emperor and his warrior's pride. The only thing human about him is his affection for his brothers. He saw everything about me, and he was disgusted. Not just disgusted about you and me, or Garrus or even Liara. He felt disgusted by my affairs with humans, by my hunger, my thrist, my fatigue... all that makes me human is just a weakness that he can no longer understand. His kind is without such flaws and the only thing he respected about me was my ability to kill. He is a judge who can never relate to us. He knows no fear and he knows no compassion. He exists only to kill his Emperor's foes and glorify his name in blood."

The Quarian's body went cold with a pang of dread. The common nature of biological existence was the basis of empathy between the various alien races. Human, Quarian, Asari, Turian, Salarian or even Krogan still loved their own families. Even Vorcha felt hunger and fatigue, fear and pain. The need to sate the hunger, reproduce and gain things they wanted was what defined the races of the galaxy. These giants had no such connection, for they were above such mortal concerns. They only wanted to slay those that opposed their Empire and pray on top of a mound of corpses.

"We will manage it, Jane. They can't be more dangerous than the Reapers." Tali knew in her heart that she was reaching with blind optimism. _If that super dreadnought was a Cruiser, what manner of monstrosity would be a battleship?_

"They are far more dangerous. But they have their religion... and according to it, Earth is holy." Shepard felt her anxiety attack fading as a grim smile crossed her face. "We can't beat them, but we can use that. They are nothing if not faithful, and for once their inhuman nature is a blessing. They do not doubt as easily as a human. Terra is sacred, and Earth is still Terra." She leaned in to wrap her arms around Tali's waist and held her closely in a tight embrace. "Never knew I would cheer for zealotry..."

"We did work for Cerberus once, can't be crazier than that." Tali replied as relief washed through her being as she heard Shepard's voice calm down. "Lets talk to the team tomorrow. If Wrex doesn't have a few tips on how to talk to warriors, I'll do all the laundry next month."

Shepard forced a weak chuckle. "I'll take that bet."

 **Dakka System, Pragia**

The Orks were not a race given to precision, but their raw enthusiasm made up for it. In a matter of hours, the base was more or less established and the Mekboys went around with scanners. Another few hours and Gretchin mining teams were already being whipped to drill into the ground in search for deposits of useful ores while the Orks established their ramshakle dwellings. Smidged sodium lamps lit up their disordered dormitories where spilled fuel and weapons were just as common as spilt fungus beer and garbage.

The central fort was already erected, a huge rectangular bunker, and in its throne room the Kaptin and his merry band of boys gathered around a smoke belching computer to discuss their next dastardly move to the sound of Grot tanks patrolling around the city and Ork Speedfreaks racing across the streets in a drunken haze.

"So wat's da plan boss?" Brikkfist asked the Kaptin after downing his fifth mug of beer and entertaining the nob bodyguards with a loud belch.

"Step One, we'ze gonna get us some more ships. Step Two, I dunno, raid some git. Step Three, Profit!" Bludflagg grinned and lit the wad of dried fungus in his pipe with a leering grin.

"Gettin' the ships of deze gits up to propa orky standards is one zog of a job, Kaptin" Mister Nailbrain pointed out the obvious. "Dem little naff things need a lot'of luv and even more dakka to be ready for a good fightin'."

"There is lots of wrecks all over da place, Mistah Nailbrain. Lets bash togetha some scrap barges and we'ze gonna be swimmin' in scrap soon." The Kaptin replied as he opened a file on the buzzing, clanking machine. Badly integrated human computers sizzled with electricity and the holo projector began to show the locations of major Reaper war era battles, many of which were still too hazardous for all but the most foolhardy scavengers to loot. But orks were the greatest scavengers ever to exist in any universe.

"Dat's a right cleva plan boss. I'ze been worried I woulda run out of stikkbombs soon!" Spookums clapped his hands in joy, already thinking on how to mix cryo grenades into his big bag of explosive tricks.

"I'll get on da job boss! Gitfinda set to scrap!" Mister Nailbrain saluted his boss and began running towards the few landed pirate vessels, eager to begin on his modifications. He will just need to find bigger magnets.

 **The Veralis System**

The Warp broke open with allmighty thunder that impossibly resonated through the empty void of space. A giant skull appeared in the swirling vortex of empyric energy even as it began to widen by kilometers in every second, until it was ragged tear in reality a hundred kilometers wide.

But the skull was no ordinary skull, but the half mechanical Opus Machina of the Mechanicus, proudly mounted upon the squat prow of the Ark Mechanicus called the _Omnissiah's Vengeance_.  
In the mechanical eye socket, powerful sensors scanned the entire system in front of them, and in the dark cavity of the human half's socket hid the powerful Nova cannon of the mighty warship. The teeth of the cog-skull icon split apart in a grin, exposing gargantuan torpedo tubes to the empty void.

The rest of the monstrous bulk followed suit, its broadsides dotted by giant macrocannon and plasma cannon emplacements, its spine covered in heavy lance turrets and its lower decks housings the mighty hangar bays that provided attack craft cover for the mighty vessel.  
The macrocannon broadsides gave way to additional lance batteries and two-two wings spread out from the aft of the vessel, the upper ones mounting more lance turrets while the lower ones terminated in multi barreled macrocannon emplacements.

As its towering bridge and warp vanes broke the rift, the other ships of the Explorator Fleet slid through into reality. The Warp Abacus aboard the _Omnissiah's Vengenace_ cogitator system has guided the fleet here more accurately than any flesh and blood Navigator could, and the ships of the Machine God exited the warp rift in a perfectly calculated formation.

First came the Light cruisers, Lathe class exploration vessels designed to scout ahead and operate for years alone if necessary, and Secutor class warships, fast and extremely resilient in order to counter any enemy escorts that would try to flank the bigger, slower vessels of the fleet.

As the _Omnissiah's Vengeance_ pulled out of the Warp in all its fifteen kilometer long glory, the great miner barges, supply carriers and the two precious Goliath Class factory ships, the _Phobos_ and _Deimos_ followed after it into real space. Surrounding them were the cruisers and battlecruisers of the Mechanicus, akin to their imperial variants expect for the additional lance turret bearing wings upon their aft hulls and their blunt prows, upon which were mounted all manners of torpedo tubes, weapon batteries and even Nova cannons in configurations unseen amongst the Imperial Navy.

The bridge of the _Omnissiah's Vengeance_ was dark and lit only by red emergency lights. Hundreds of servitors and the Lexicani and Calculus Logi overseeing them chattered in Binary with the various Adepts and Magi filling the rest of the space.  
While the darkness of the bridge would have been too low for unaltered men to comfortably work in, the low light did not bother the augmented servants of the Mechanicus. Screens lit with graphs, data matrixes and streams of binary were visible to the mortal eye, yet to the cyborgs the red-orange glow of the Noosphere bathed the entire bridge in its light. Calculations, messages, predictions, data packets flowed in the digital interface, inloaded and exloaded by various adepts at will.

At the heart of it all was Archmagos Veneratus Kerial, his withered organs housed in a hulking mechanical body that sat atop a metallic throne. As sensor data began to inload to his systems, the ancient being at the heart of the humanoid machine began to calculate the best methods of resource exploitation. It was said that a Tyranid hive fleet could strip a world's surface of all useful materials in two months. An explorator fleet could do that to an entire star system in under two weeks, fracturing the mantle to siphon out all the necessary heavy elements from it and even mine the planetary core itself.

If the Adeptus Astartes report has been correct about the Warp rift, the Mechanicus would need all the raw materials they could get to construct the fortifications needed to stem the tide of xenos coming from the rift, or worse.


	16. Of Pride and Omens

**Aboard the Omnissiah's Vengeance, in Veralis orbit**

The outermost ice planet of the system revealed little of interest, save for a few unusual elemantal deposits. The two gas giants had a few smaller moons that were being surveyed by servitor craft. Veralis Secondus had some promethium reserves and enough population to start a manufactorum complex. The innermost planet's mantle however was rich in Adamantium, and the Martian fleet began to split as it approached the inner rocky planets, one third approaching Seconduns, the other Primus, while the last one escorted the two Goliaths to the star where they would begin siphoning its plasma to refuel the fleet and power their enormous internal factories.

Aboard the Omnissiah's Vengeance, Archmagos Veneratus Kerial had already tasked two of his slaved cybernetic brains to planning out the optimal method of resource exploitation. The rest of his slaved cyberbrains and his own magnificent Intellect Core were analyzing the data the Astartes had sent them via the vox network of Veralis Secundus's rebuilding capital. The anomaly troubled and intrigued the ancient cyborg in equal measures, and he began plotting the best formation of interlocking defense platforms around the deep space wormhole.

The Mechanicus would have a lot of work to do, but they have brough the tools to do just that.

 **The Citadel, the Serpent Nebula**

The Council was still pondering about the giant human warriors when Aria's report on the greenskins arrived. It first seemed to be nothing more than a joke, the images of the crude, green barbarians something akin to images from a fantasy novel. But they all knew Aria was no fool, and STG reports from Omega were confirming the findings.

"For a fungoid race, they are remarkably humanoid. Their use of human language and ability to adapt anything they find to their needs suggest a parasitic civilisation that sustains itself by looting the supplies they need from more advanced races." Councilor Salern was musing out loud, his hyperactive Salarian biochemistry making his brain run away with hypothesis after hypothesis, weighting the new information against the biochemical and historical records of the Council Races.

"They are a military threat. This has the smell of another Krogan Rebellion just waiting to happen. We must get all the races together to prepare for a war." Sparatus was in a foul mood, his usual sarcasm having had evaporated quickly as he reveiwed the military part of the reports. The Orks were extremely violent, resilient, and for all the world seemed to love fighting.

"We do not yet know if they can reproduce at the rate the Krogans could. So far the report says very little about that, but there has been no reported sighting of a female ork. Perhaps they are a monogender race, like us. We must secure an Ork, or at least a dead specimen for Citadel scientists to study." Tevos replied, her mind going back to the meeting with the super-humans. They were all men too, so far as she knew, but she had attributed that to human males being chosen simply for being the more muscle bound gender of their species. "The reports indicate that they lack all manner of sexual glands."

"They are curiously alike to humans in some way. Their skeletal structure is similar, as well to their limbs. They also appear to speak a mangled form of the human English language, and I can not dismiss the notion that these Orks could be a Cerberus supersoldier project gone wrong." Salern was happy that the human admiral was not present.

"That could be said of the Asari as well. Let us not jump to conclusions. If these Orks are half as simple as they appear, perhaps we can overcome them with guile instead of brute force." Tevos was hoping they did not need to resort to making a second Genophage, for all reports were full of mentions of just how resilient and robust Orkish biochemistry was. There was no known occurance of an Ork ever getting sick beyond a simple hangover and while the data on the species was very fresh and the observations short lived, it correlated with their strange, tri-part DNA that seemed to be a curious amalgalm of animal, plant and fungal genetics.

"We need a Spectre task force on Omega, and damn Aria if she complains about it. These Orks are capable of photosynthesis. We don't know nearly enough about them." Sparatus was sure that swift action was taken, but anybody with even the smallest of military experience knew that a plan made without good intel tended to fall to pieces sooner rather than later.

"We'll also make sure that the Spectres have time to question our Tau prisoner. If we are lucky, his Empire values the education of its soldiers." Tevos added before the meeting dissolved into various arguments about the finer points of Orkish anatomy.

 **Vancouver, near Commander Shepard's residence**

With the city still undergoing reconstruction, Shepard and her team met at the mostly intact park near her temporary quarters. Her friends and comrades all listened to her in awe as she described the various sights and mental images she had seen during the curious psychic melding.

"How sure can we be that this images they showed you are the truth?" Garrus asked, leaning against the thick trunk of a maple tree.

"Such melds are very... intimate. Lying with such a connection is considered impossible to our knowledge." Samara replied, looking troubled by the fact that humans could use such a connection at all. She knew what irresponsible use of melds could result in.

"I am surprised they could even make it mostly one sided. Only the most experienced Asari can do such things." Liara agreed, sharing the Justicar's unease about the way these new humans handled such an intimate matter.

"Don't worry, it was nothing like the way you do it." Shepard added, making Miranda roll her eyes and cross her arms.

"The implications of this process being sustained without Element Zero are most fascinating." Mordin agreed, looking between Liara and Shepard. "Perhaps the Commander could describe the further differences between the two incidents in detail."

"I'm sure a lot of people would like to know that!" Grunt laughed and drew a rather icy glare from Liara.

"When you kids are done acting like juveniles, we need to discuss how we are going to get more information about their equipment and weapons. I wouldn't mind to try out some of those angel-guns myself." Zaeed showed a picture of a bulky Boltgun on his Omnitool, quite taken by the brutal weapon.

"Are you even sure you could lift that? It is more akin to some of the guns we used on our tanks on Tuchanka than an infantry rifle." Wrex eyed Zaeed before his wide mouth drew up into a grin. "But yeah, I would love to get my hands on one of those man bursters."

Grunt nodded his agreement while Garrus shook his head. "Brute force is not the only way. I am more interested in that sniper rifle the bearded guy was hauling."

"I heard the captain referred to him as Sergeant Cyrus. Their armour adds bulk, but their height is all natural. I wonder what type of gene mods they got in that body..." Miranda trailed away.

"I am sure your only interest in his biology is stricty professional, Miss Lawson." Ashley replied in a voice that made clear that she was suspecting a more eugenic reason behind Miranda's interest.

"You can't blame the girl for looking. That guy spotted me at a hundred meters with my camo on. That is some gene work right there." Kasumi seemed rather sour about the subject. After all, Angels with that much bling on their armour must be keeping heavenly treasures somewhere on their ship.

"Miranda, you are a genious." Shepard interjected with the first smile on her face since the nightmares last night.

"Well of course I am, after all..." The ex-Cerberus operative began to reply, before thinking better of it.

"We need to get more information about them. I need to earn at least some respect from their commander. I'll challenge him to a bout of unarmed combat and see how long I can last. Wrex, do you think he would agree to a non lethal sparring session?" Her crimson eyes turned onto the Krogan elder.

"If you can get him to agree to it in the first place, he will not break the laid down rules. I have seen his kind of pride in many warlords. He may be arrogant, but he will honour his word." Wrex replied after a moment's pause.

"Keelah Jane, you just want to see his big, muscled chest." Tali gently punched Shepard in the upper arm.

"That's unfair, Tali, and you know it." Jane replied, somewhat troubled. While inhuman in many ways, the Captain had a noble cast to his features.

"He does look like a noble knight on a quest. Only if his personality was not like that of an iceberg." Kelly added, before blushing. "Don't tell Samantha I said that."

"The question is not his good looks, for I have him beaten in that department." Deadpanned Garrus, eliciting laughs and groans of dismay before fixing his eyes on Shepard. "The question is whenever you can get through a round with him without being crippled. Even if he knows how to hold back enough not to kill you, this plan of yours could lend you in a hospital for months."

"I am trusting in my cybernetics to get me through the worst of it. For all we know, they are not that super strong without the armour. Besides, the goal is not to beat him, but to get him to value me, if not as a person, but at least a warrior who is not afraid to face him." Her jaw was set. She would see how much of these visions were true and she desperately promised herself to last at least a few minutes.

"I'll get him to let at least you watch. I am sure he will require some of his Sergeants to attend as well. I don't want to do any obvious scans, but keep your eyes open Mordin. You are worth more than any scanner in this galaxy or any other." She saw the aged Salarian's back straighten with the praise, and he nodded.

"It will be done, Shepard. The encounter will be most enlightening, many theories will be put to test and information will be collected."

 **The streets of Vancouver, near the shoreline**

Captain Aramus was as pleased as he had ever been since this sorry incident happened. The Thunderhawk had carried his Sergeants down for what the locals considered sightseeing, but he considered a tactical assesment, while Jonah was meditating on the anomalously strong walls between the Warp and reality that stood here. Brother Martellus was checking Captain Thule's mighty Dreadnought form to make sure the venerable hero was ready for a rapid drop pod insertion.

Tarkus was making an observation about the city's general layout and the armed forces in it, while Avitus was examining any fortification he could lay his helm's lenses on.

Thaddeus was out amongst the population, his natural charisma lending him the unusal talent of communicating somewhat easily with mortals. Meanwhile Cyrus was watching the watchers, observing any obvious and covert local spy that trailed them.

Aramus himself had taken to touring the city and observing his effect on the population. Most seemed terrified of him, but some seemed to share the Imperial citizenry's awe at his sight.  
Those in the latter group seemed to be partial to the less xenos loving groups of Cerberus and Terra Firma organisations. His victory over the alien assassins have given at least some of the locals a semblance of a spine.

The fact that these humans choose their leaders instead of breeding a nobility of them to rule still caused him to shake his head at their hubris. Elected officials, committees, rights and benefits. Weakness and a slow reaction to threats, in other, saner words.

One citizen was even brazen and enthusiastic enough to offer him a meal and some Ilho sticks for showing the "uppity better than you aliens not to bully us humans on our fucking home planet" as the old, gnarled man had so succintly put it, holding up a spicy seafood dish in a wrinkled, brown hand to the Captain.  
He had decided to accept the gift and in return regale the old man and the patrons of his small family restaurant with some grand tales of the Imperium for an entire hour, leaving out of course any useful military information or anything relating to the darker truths about the Immaterium.

Though his blessed armour purified his blood and recycled the little waste materials and carbon dioxide his hyper efficient body produced and fed it back to him intravenously, it would have insulted the elder to reject his gifts. No doubt his visit would more than make up for his financial losses and he had to admit that the gumbo was actually quite delicious, if one had the stomach for its spicy nature.

Thus it was that when the nearest enforcer has lead Commander Shepard to him, he was looking rather pleased with himself and fuming with the cigar like an ancient action hero that stepped right out of a US movie threatre.

"Good evening, Captain." Jane said after she had gotten over how ridiculous that cigar looked and tried not to think the distinctly macho air it gave to the usually monkish giant.

"Commander." Aramus nodded, quite sure that his pleasant mood was about to be ruined by whatever depraved idea that pervert of a commander had in mind.

"I think we should get to know each other better. After all you did go looking around in my mind without permission. I want to spar with you and see how tough you are without all that armour." It took all her courage to say that without a tremor in her voice, but her mind was made up. She would conquer her fear and show this beefed up hulk of testosterone that she was to be afforded basic respect.

The Captain was not familiar enough with humans to read anything into the first sentence that was not there, but even without imagining a candlelit dinner, the prospect of getting to know the redhead better was not something to look forward. The second sentence just made him blow a cloud of smoke into the air in exasperation, the tobacco that had no effect on him making her cringe her nose in visible distaste.  
He felt and quickly suppressed a stab of satisfaction at her discomfort, knowing that this was petty, but the human woman was just so infuriatingly insolent, yet he could not even afford to give her a proper session in the pain glove for her troubles.

The third sentence made it all worth while. Showing up this arrogant little toy soldier and teaching her to respect her natural superiors was quite the appealing offer. He chastised himself mentally, such thinking was for the likes of the Eldar. He would teach her to respect him because he represent the Angels of the Emperor, not because any foolish sense of personal pride.

"So you wish to duel me unarmoured until one of us yields?" He seemed to ponder it for a moment for the sake of appearances. He was sure that she did not mean for a duel to the death. Whenever she truly believed she could best him, or just wanted to show her bravado was not important, a Space Marine did not back from a challange, even if it was barely one to begin with.

"I will accept your offer. Rest for tonight and we will settle the matter at noon tomorrow. You will have a chance to express your dissatisfaction at my conduct." He said graciously and wondered if this was all about healing her wounded ego at the price of a few broken ribs or fingers.

Jane was somewhat surprised, she half expected him to decline to spar with a mere space peasant like herself or whatever he saw her as. She was not sure the hulking Captain actually understood that she had a right to be upset about the psychic interrogation, but she was determined to prove her worth yet again.

"I will see you at noon, Captain Aramus. I'll show you that I'm the toughest girl in the galaxy for a good reason." She smiled at him, trying to ignore his intimidating, almost supernatural presence and give him an almost flippant salute before departing.

 _The Extranet:_

 **+Alliance News Network Special Bulletin+**

Orcs or Hoax?

There has been rumors of a new race appearing out of nowhere to land on the criminal haven of Omega. Green and muscle bound, is this a new real race or a Lord of the Rings joke gone too far?  
Sources from Omega are confirming that these new beings appear to be in fact not only real, but really savage. Be advised that some of the holographic images contained in this article are considered to be distrubing and require you to be over 18 to watch.

 **+Krumplr, the new social media phenomenon, from the Galactic Inquisitor+**

Orcs, or more appropriatly called Orks, have already taken the Extranet by storm. While we do not know where the servers for this new social site are located, we do know that these Orks got an attitude and a mean strike a mile wide! Let us view some of the top posts by our new green neighbours.

"Who lubs the dakka dakka? I Zarguff luvs dakka dakka!"  
 _-Zarguff_  
 _WAAAGH: 5927_  
 _Zogoff: 0_

"I'ze da biggest an' da meanest of all da boyz! Everyboddy else is a git!"  
 _-Kromlek_  
 _WAAAGH: 143_  
 _Zogoff: 198_

"Are you from World of Warcraft?"  
 _-Andygamer2170_  
 _WAAAGH: 12_  
 _Zogoff: 15_

"I'ze from Gorkamorka but dat iz non of ye business ya stoopid umie!"  
 _-Gorkaff, replyin' ta -Andygamer2170_  
 _WAAAGH: 684_  
 _Zogoff: 1_

"You orcs clearly know nothing of about how a proper military operates."  
 _-PavalenPatriotus_  
 _WAAAGH: 0_  
 _Zogoff: 8421_

"Wat da zog did ye just say to me, ya little git? I'll tell ya dat I have been da meanest and biggest of da Nobz and I have been fightin' an killin' on Armorgeddem, Greyah an Orktarius and I'ze got over lotz thousand komfirmed kills! I'ze trained in choppin up Spesh Mehreens and I'ze da best shootin boy in da entire WAAAAGH! Bludflagg! Ya'ze nothin to me just anudda git to be smashed. I'ze gonna wipe ya da zog out widh sum' brutal kunnin the like of dat ya have never seen in dis galaxy, get what I'm sayin'? Ya think ya can get away with sayin' dat dung to me on da Exxanet? Ya'ze gotta fink it again! I'm already gettin mah boyz up for krumpin' yer ass an' I'm contaktin da Mekboys to track yer planet roight dis moment so ya better get ready to be stomped flat ya spikey! Da stompin' that will chop ya up so good ya'll won't know what pieces ya were! You iz dead, git! I'ze kunningly hidden whereva I wanna go and I can krump you in seven hundred ways and shoot ya another seven hundred moar! And dat's just without me giga choppa! Not only iz I da biggest and baddest Ork eva, I'ze got all da boyz I need from da Waaagh kauze' dey be zogging mad when I'ze tell dem wat ya said and we'ze gonna stomp you off yer entire planet ya little grot! Ya'z got no idea wat dat lippin writin' was gonna get ya , do ya? If ya did ya'll spikies woulda gona back home runnin like some humie git! But ya didn't so youz gonna pray da price ya Mork blasted squig! I'ze gonna stomp fureh all ovah yer arse an ya'll gonna eat my choppa and I'ze gonna cook ya! Ya iz zoggin dedd!"  
 _MegaNOBGorsnagga replyin' ta -PavalenPatriotus_  
 _WAAAGH: 41000_  
 _Zogoff: 0_

 **\+ Chirper,#gretchingenocide #PETA #Morethanjustagretchin +**

There is a great injustice amongst the stars! The noble and proud race of the Gretchin had been enslaved by the oppressive,colonial,imperialist and toxic fungoidity of the Orcs. These brave and abused little people need the help of every civilised being and we at the People for the Ethical Treatment of Aliens are asking you for donations to save as many of these bullied, gentle beings from the horrific slavery at the hands of the brutish and patriarchal Orks. These little, defenceless creatures are kicked, punched, shot and even eaten every day, a tragic genocide that has to end! Those that have the most could offer up to house one of these little green refugees until we can find a lush and peaceful planet for them to live on far away from the cruel hands of Orkmanity. The Gretchin already rescued have all tell horrifying tales of abuse and few get to live beyond a handful of years. We ask every gentle and good being to help in our fight and Adopt a Gretchin a today! These little green bringers of joy deserve better!

 _-Message by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Aliens, displayed on a holo terminal in Vancouver, shortly before it was violently vandalised by a Blood Raven soldier called Brother Sergeant Avitus._

Author's notes: I am sorry about the slow updates. Half my colleagues have left and I need to put all my time to work.


	17. Visions and Duels

**The Temple of Correction, Maccrage**

 _The Scythe was raised high, held in Death's hand, the legions of the deathless marching once against its mighty thrall as suns were devoured._  
 _A tear in the fabric of reality blossomed to the galactic west of Ultramar, the coordinates lighting up on the galactic map with blazing letters._  
 _Astartes clad in dark red battling the Tau xenos, Captain Ventris battling against the Necrons under Pavonis.  
Four bloodied ravens, four times the sign of Ultima._  
 _A strange human woman surrounded by never before seen xenos, a fleet of the Machine god in high anchor around the rift._

Chief Librarian Varro Tigurius awoke from his slumber with his eyes wide, his genhanced physique bringing him to total awareness in a split second. The vision still floated before his eyes, and he could hear the echoes of death and war revebrating through space and time.

There were very few psykers amongst the Imperium, nay, the universe to match an alpha plus Astartes Librarian like Tigurius. Some of those were the stuff of legends themselves, like Mephiston, the Lord of Death or the almost mythical Draigo of the Grey Knights. Others were cursed names, like Eldrad Ulthuan or Azariah Kyras. The last name stuck in his head, as he recognised the dark red armour in his vision.

Blood Ravens, a somewhat famed, or rather infamed chapter of mysterious, brutal and long lived warriors that mostly followed the Hallowed Wisdom of the Holy Codex Astartes and were just now trying to recover from the treachery or their Chief Librarian and Chapter Master, Kyras himself.

 _It could not have been one of the proper Sons of Guilliman_ , Tigurius thought. The purest and greatest of all chapters were those that followed the exact example of the Great Primarch, Guilliman and the example set down by the greatest of them all, the noble Ultramarines. Most of the descendants of the 13th Legion followed their Primarch's holy word to the letter, and some chapters of less noble heritage like the Blood Ravens, Raven Guard and Imperial Fists were mostly compliant with its sacred word as well.

Though some relics did go missing around the crimson magpies, at least they were not the blood crazed Blood Angels, the arrogant Dark Angels or the savage and infernally bathing-averse Space Wolves. Dealing with such deviant chapters were always a strain for even the noblest, humblest Ultramarine.  
Tigurius still recalled the day he had to physically restrain Cato Sicarius from lethal violence when an insolent Long Fang suggested that the holiest of holy tomes made for a better beer coaster than reading material.  
 _Oh if Guilliman would ever return, he would show all these mongrel chapters why the Ultramarines were the greatest of them all!_

The omens were rather easy to figure out. Captain Ventris fought the Nightbringer, that ancient terror that some Necrons foolishly thought they managed to shatter. The Blood Ravens 4th Company helped out the Ultramarines 4th Company after Tarsis Ultra against the Tyranids, and fate seemed determined to test that pairing against the soulless, metallic machines. The warp anomaly was most likely the place where the Mechanicus fleet was bound and where the mighty C'tan would once again rise to threaten the purity and power of the Imperium.

The unknown Xenos and that human woman were undoubtly significant, but their exact nature eluded the mighty Librarian. Mighty as they were, the Blood Ravens would no doubt need the Ultramarines to fight the Necrons, after all, nobody fought better than the Lords of Maccrage, save perhaps the Grey Knights and the Custodian Guard. Tigurius got up from the stone bed of his sleeping cell and called one of the loyal serfs to his chamber. He had to contact Captain Ventris and alert him that the past was about to make a return.

 **The Lightning Fist Dojo, Vancouver**

 _Commander Shepard_

The fateful duel turned out to be quite the attraction, with many local officers and civilians joining in to watch the Hero of the Citadel face off against the Saviour of Aurelia.

Dressed in shorts and a close fitting sports top, Shepard stretched her muscles, watching her friends as they seated themselves in the front spectator row. Some like Wrex and Grunt looked eager for the match, while others like Garrus and Liara were very cleary rather worried about her. She gave them a wave with one hand and succeeded in putting on a brave face.

After warming up her enhanced muscles, she loosely made a few mock passes at the air as the young, or rather young looking Thaddeus came in, dressed in a humble red robe. He sat down next to Kelly Chambers, looking as usual way more approachable than his fellow warriors.  
Jane was reminded of an eager boyscout, and wished that the barely eighty year old 'youth' would have been the Astartes leader. She was sure that she could have achieved better results with him than Sire Arrogant-us.

 _Captain Aramus_

Exactly at noon, Aramus strode into the fighting arena of the 'Dojo', whatever that meant, wearing nothing but a heavy pair of thick, almost knee long sparring trousers. Divested of his armour, he strode forward with the strange feeling of air brushing against his perfectly gene-crafted muscles and connection ports. A strange feeling in a strange world.

His eyes rested on the slender form of the athletic Commander, analyzing every wiry muscle and feminine curve with a cold detachment that no mortal men could have approached.  
Indeed, the Commander must have been a sight to muddle the minds of the strongest men, her beauty not totally lost on the Captain. But he was no longer human, and his mind filtered out all distractions.

"It is not too late to flee, mortal. You have no chance." His voice rang out, filling the chamber with the majestic declaration of an angel in flesh. "Even with my hands tied, you would fail."

 _Commander Shepard_

She took a long look at the Captain as the gene-warrior strode in. _He was far less bulky than his armour would suggest_ , was her first impression. The warrior's figure was not at all ungainly, though there was something slightly off with the proportions.  
The head, while slightly larger than a human's, with harder jawlines and chiseled knightly features, was somewhat yet too small compared to the rest of his powerful, long limbs and wide torso.

But there was nowhere the oversized bulging musculature that she expected, and it took her a moment to figure out why. The Astartes's muscles were amazingly large and thick, for his arm was much thicker than a human's thigh, but his limbs were also correspondly longer and his muscles perfectly sculpted, and thus there was nothing at all apelike in his form. It was the graceful, powerful body of a storm bound in humanoid shape.

 _If only he was not such an ass_ , she found herself thinking, for a moment her eyes unable to tear away from that musculed, masculine glory. Than the glory hound opened his mouth and of course, something arrogant came out of it and the spell was broken.

"Lets see if those odds are still true without your armor!" She bravely grinned at him and saluted the towering soldier with her middle finger. _  
God, Tali deserves to slap me after this, if I'll still have a face to get slapped._ Jane reprimanded herself, and with a biotic lunge she charged forward to at least swipe that smug grin of his face.

 _Captain Aramus_

He was still trying to figure out what the one fingered salute meant when the woman lunged at him. He watched her move forward, as if watching a slow motion hololithic display, his arms dropping to his sides and his fingers extending to grab the woman by the nape of her neck. For a few microseconds he was bored, then the woman suddenly accelerated forward as a strange glow filled the air around her.

He was still much faster than her, but the surprise of that impossible attack meant that he managed to pull himself only half out of the way by the time the woman's fist punched upwards into his jaw. The force would have broken a man's jawbone and maybe even killed a mortal, but his altered flesh and the black carapace along his ceramite reinforced bones was an entirely different matter.

Aramus fully expected the woman's fist to shatter, but there was no crack of bones. Extensive cybernetics could sometimes do that, but he never expected her to posses this many genetic and cybernetic alterations. Still, in the blink of an eye he was out of the way and moving to mildly shove the human's shoulder. Still, his pride was stung, the mortal actually managed to hit him, even if it was all his fault.

 _Commander Shepard_

It felt like punching a brick wall. No, it actually felt harder, for the genemods in her muscles would have made her come on top were she punching a wall.  
A look of surprise crossed her opponents face, than the next moment he was simply not there, but standing next to her.  
Another split second, and she was suddenly airborne and slamming into the padded walls below the spectator's rows.

Pain exploded along her side and conspired with dizzyness to black her out. It felt like she got punched by a Yagh, and she was sure that at least some of her ribs were fractured. But Commander Shepard never gave up. So Jane got to her feet, pushed the pain from her mind and charged the giant once more. Even if she underestimated on how strong he was without his armour, she would still give a good account of herself. _For the Alliance, for her friends, for Tali._

 _Captain Aramus_

The mortals and xenos watching let out a gasp of horror as their Commander was flung into the padding by a simple push. He fully expected the human to lay down, but was pleasantly surprised when Shepard got up and charged him again. She rained a flurry of blows at him that would have taken any Krogan or Goliath ganger out in a few heartbeats, but his steel hard arms came up easily in time to block every punch and jab, his steely muscles taking the impacts as if they were nothing more than an autumn rain.

After a few more seconds he pushed the human to the ground with inhuman speed, barely putting any of his strength into the blow. Yet Shepard went down once more onto her rear in a rather undignified manner, her gaggle of henchman exchanging worried glances.

 _Commander Shepard_

His arms were just always in the way. Nothing should move that fast, especially without the aid of technology. Her hands were sore and her knuckles started to bleed from hitting the arms that felt like they were made out of granite.  
Then she was on the ground again, only the padded floor preventing her bones from breaking as all the air was pushed from her lungs. She panted for a few seconds, her biotic metabolism, cybernetics and gene enhancers keeping her in the fight where any regular human would have been left worn out after a minute.

She once again stood up and spat blood onto the floor, before extending her hand to the giant, taunting him to attack. She would not yield until she could rise no longer.

 _Captain Aramus_

The acrid stink of Shepard sweat filled his nostrils, only to be replaced by the iron stench of blood as she spat on the floor. He watched the crimson globule on its way down, the iron rich blood splattering on the fighting mat in slow motion. A son of Sanguinius would have been overwhelmed by that scent, but to him it only spoke of the enhanced chemicals that still kept the human fighting.

He saw her fingers curl inwards, and charged at the woman, determined to push her to the floor and keep her there. She did fight valiantly, but there as no sense in prolonging the inevitable.

 _Commander Shepard_

Just as the Captain's legs exploded into motion, she raised a kinetic barrier and started falling onto her back, pushing her legs upwards to kick the giant warrior over herself. Faster than the eye could follow, he was already on top of her, crashing onto the barrier like a battering ram. Her feet were met by two hundred kilograms of gene-forged bone and muscle, heavy as any Krogan.  
She kicked out with all her might, letting his momentum carry the superhuman warrior over her head and rolling onto the floor. Just as she felt triumph fill her heart at the sight of the giant hitting the ground, an arm lashed out to grab her leg and the world erupted into violent motion.

 _Captain Aramus_

The biotic barrier was something new to Astartes, and he crashed into it like a wrecking ball, slowed down enough by the impact to let Shepard's legs kick into his abdominal muscles. The flesh and the rib plate protecting his torso easily absorbed the impact, but even he did not control gravity and he was sent flying behind the human. At the last micro second, his arm seized her leg and yanked the girl after himself.

 _Commander Shepard_

She landed on top of the giant with pain flaring in her entire body. Her cybernetics once more saved her, for surely her knee and ankle would have broken if they were still made of ordinary bone and muscle. She tried to hold him down, but it was like holding down an enraged lion.  
In the blink of an eye, she was on her back and the giant warrior was holding her wrists in one hand, the other pressing her shoulder down to the mat with irresistible force.

The pressure relented on her chest, and his arm was suddenly pulled back. Her red eyes went wide as she saw those giant knucles descending towards her face with terrifying speed. This was the end. She pushed him too hard and not even Miranda could fix the lack of a head. But the blow never landed, the unyielding skin of the warrior's fist barely touching against the tip of her nose.

"I yield." Jane spat out, knowing that no matter how much he deserved a beating, she lost in an honourable fight. She gave it her all and she would not disgrace her efforts by being a sore looser. He never exploited the times she went down, and she was beaten fairly.

The knightly warrior nodded, his skin unblemished by sweat or blood save for where her knuckles bled on his skin. He managed to surprise her by leaping to his feet and than pulling her up as if she was a newborn child. _Damnit he was pulling his punches_ , she mused and nodded her head in thanks.

 _Captain Aramus_

Shepard gave an account for herself that would have made any elite of the Imperial Guard proud. He nodded back at her in the solemn manner of his species, for a warrior deserved respect for her indomitable spirit as much as for her lethality. "You fought well for a human, Commander Shepard. Take pride in that." For the first time, a genuine smile formed on the Captain's lips.

 _Commander Shepard_

Shepard stared for a moment. She fully expected him to rub it in, but instead she received a respectful nod, and a smile that once again reminded her how impressive a man her adversary was. His features were chiselled, bearing the noble countenance of a romantic knight mixed with the strong, powerful features of a barbarian king. Jane knew most human girls would not find him attractive, but than most would be unable to see past Garrus's mandibles either. And if she knew how to sweet talk a Turian guy, surely she knew how to handle a space knight as well.

"You are a great warrior. I have never fought anyone so strong or powerful as you are. Truly, your Emperor must be proud to have a soldier like you fighting for him." Men were still men, and a gorgeous woman flattering a man's pride was always an easy way to calm him down. Granted, most men would have preffered something along the lines of, _You are such a badass_ , but she was not sure that he would get the slang term.

The Captain seemed rather pleased with all the flattery, no matter how flowery it seemed to Jane. He looked her over with an intensity that would have made her blush, were she not so sore. "I tried to cause no permanent harm, but you ought to consult your medicae." He declared, but there was no trace of gloating in his voice.

"I'm fine. I have been through worse and I will be good as new in a few minutes." She was the thoughest girl ever, and damn nobody could tell her otherwise.

"Keelah, Jane, stop flirting with him and get to Dr Chakwas, or I swear you are sleeping on the couch." Her moment of defiant pride was interrupted as an equally worried and annoyed Tali'zorah took her by the waist to drag her away from the dojo, leaving a somewhat puzzled Astartes behind. The only question on her mind was, who would chew her out more, Tali or the good doctor.


	18. The Grim Reaper Awakens

**The Vae Victus, Veralis system**

Archmagos Veneratus Kerial had sent all the information he had to the Tacticus chamber of the Ultramarines Strike cruiser at it sped towards the gaping portal, escorted by the Light of Logic, a Mars class Mechanicus Battlecruiser and the Avenger of Typhon, a Blood Ravens Vanguard Strike Cruiser.

Captain Uriel Ventris watched as they neared the hastily constructed defense platforms and the gargantuan Ramilies star fort, the Glorious Retaliation that had been moved to the system to keep guard and protect from whatever xenos horrors would come through the gateway.

Somewhere in a new and terrible galaxy, an old evil lurked. He let it get away once, but he swore it would not do so again a second time.

 **Dholen System**

Haestrom's sun was entering the final hours of its life. The gargatuan red giant had swollen as it desperately tried to fuse heavier and heavier elements in order to escape its inevitable doom. The figure in the star's photosphere was drawing massive solar flares to its dark body, the necrodermis expanding as it took on the form that once almost exterminated all life in a galaxy.

The Necrontyr dynasties had thought it had been shattered and destroyed, enslaved by its own treacherous minions. But a large enough core has remained that it could still remain itself. As the last of the star's power was leeched by the stellar vampire born at the great explosion that created the universe, a massive crescent began to take shape above it. It was not dissimilar to the Cairn Tombships in the same way a Gloriana is not dissimilar to an Imperial cruiser. The main difference was size, and capabilites powerful enough to lay waste to a Craftworld.

Within its living metal hull of the Bringer of Darkness, the Necrons still loyal to the Nightbringer began to wake. Soulless green eyes that once beheld the extermination of countless species once again alighted with the fires off reanimation as the Grim Reaper flew to its flagship, its Necrodermis phasing throught the walls.

As the great ship began to move, something fatal started happening in the star. Having gone through the periodic table, it started to fuse iron. But iron could not be fused, and the sudden lack of energy caused the outer layers of the star to collapse upon itself. Which lead to the next phase in a star's death. Supernova.

The lesser vessels of the Necrontyr Dynasties needed to tap into the Webway for long range travel. But like the human vessels of the Dark Age of Technology, the Bringer of Darkness needed no such primitive method of intersteller travel. Its inertialess drives accelerated it to many times the speed of light in real space, the vessel's hull ignoring the micrometeorite impacts with the same ease as the vessel ignored the laws of physics.

Behind it, the red giant have shred a massive flare of matter and energy as it finally collapsed into a black hole, a marker fit for the rebirth of a Star God. The Nightbringer let the ship's sensors pry the void. The energy of stars was a good nutrient, but it lacked the flavour of a living being's life force. Soon, there would be tastier meals.

 **The Retribution, Earth orbit**

Captain Aramus was deep in thought in his spartan quarters. There were reports coming over the Extranet that told of increased pirate activity, of green aliens flying converted raiding vessels and attacking unsuspecting freighters and small colonies.

He was bending his superhuman intellect to the task of figuring out how to best combat the Orks when Martellus quickly called him over the Vox net. "Captain. You need to see this."

As quickly as his dignity permitted, the giant warrior moved out towards the bridge, chapter serfs scurrying from his path in a hurry. When he arrived, Martellus was looking at a grainy holo image recording on one of the cogitators. "What is it that you need of me, Techmarine?"

"Geth and Quarian xenos have relayed this pict-capture to the humans' Alliance. The star in the Dholen system have been showing unnatural signs of decay for centuries, but its erratic behavior had increased recently. One of the probes managed to send information before it was destroyed."

He looked at the picture as the Techmarine zoomed it in. Had he been a human, he would have shuddered in terror. The crescent shaped image would have been familiar to every Blood Raven after the Kronus campaign. It was a Necron vessel, one that looked like a Cairn Tombship.

"Get me Commander Shepard on the vox, Martellus, and recall all our brothers to the Retribution. We are facing a foe deadlier than even the Tyranids."

 **The Normandy, Earth Orbit**

Commander Shepard was still limping even a week after her duel with the hulking warrior. If not for her cybernetics, she would have been still in a hospital bed. The talk she received from Tali the day she wake up almost made the whole affair not worth it. That oversized bastard hit like a runaway freight train, literally when he wore his armour.

"Commander. We have received hails from the Retribution." Reported Joker.

Before Shepard could say anything, reality tore above Earth and three decidedly Imperial ships appeared. One was a smaller vessel in the same livery as the Retribution, while another one was the same type of vessel, but bright blue. The last one was eight kilometers of black metal with a brutal skull decorated prow.

"Put them on speakers, Joker."

 **The Retribution, Earth Orbit**

Shepard was sitting in in the only chair in the room, a large conference chamber that reminded her of nothing more than a gothic church's interior. Joining the Blood Ravens were other gigantic warriors in the blue livery, who bore the rather unimaginative name of the Ultramarines. Guess it sounds better than Bluemarines, she thought. But it was the officer of the big ship that really put her on edge. It looked like as if the Imperials tried to recreate the reaper husks, a cybernetic nightmare in ragged, oil stained red robes that introduced itself as Magos Lazarus Gamma.

"The situation is dire. We have received intelligence from the local military that there is a Necron presence in this galaxy." Aramus showed them the weird, crescent shaped ship with its ominious green glow.

"It is worse than that. Chief Librarian Tigurius had a vision. That is none other than the Bringer of Darkness, a Necron ship of extremely powerful design." Added the Ultramarine leader named Uriel Ventris. While he was not as handsome as his Blood Raven opposite, he also had none of his bombastic ego. "It belonged to the C'tan Nightbringer, Death Incarnate. A being of such power that its image is burned into the subconscious minds of all living things."

"Recent Imperial reports indicate that the Necrons have enslaved these energy beings. However our own experiences on Kronus indicate otherwise." Added Jonah.  
"Slow down. What the hell is a Necron?" Shepard interjected, as she was quite tired of being ignored.

"Necrons are an ancient species of completely robot xenos. Sixty million years ago they wiped out almost all life in the galaxy and went into slumber. Necrons are advanced beyond human comprehension and their bodies self regenerate all but the most devastating of damage. Their weaponry destroys the molecular structure of their target the same way a power weapon can do ,but they can project this technology at range." Came Martellus's reply.

"This is no mere enslaved ... C'tan." Ventris replied, the word still unfamiliar to him. "This is a fully sentient being unchained and unbound. I have felt its mind on Pavonis."

"Oh fuck my life. First the Reapers, and now your universe's version of the Reapers. How does this fucker look?" Martellus began adjusting something on the computer before him, and an image came into view. "This is combat footage from the Necron tomb on Kronus." Added Tarkus, but Jane barely heard him.

It was the honest to God fucking Grim Reaper. Scytche, black hood, skull face and all.


End file.
